Amnesty International has issued an urgent appeal to Libyan military commander Khalifa Haftar to immediately disclose the fate and location of Member of Parliament Ibrahim Al-Dressi,who has been missing for over a year.
The call follows the emergence of disturbing video footage in May 2025,allegedly showing Al-Dressi stripped,bearing visible signs of torture,and chained by the neck inside an unidentified detention facility. Amnesty condemned the incident as a serious violation of international human rights law and called for those responsible—including high-ranking security officers—to face fair judicial proceedings.
The organization strongly criticized the response of Haftar’s Internal Security Agency,which dismissed the video as “AI-generated” and fake—a claim Amnesty rejected as unfounded. It highlighted that Al-Dressi’s case reflects a broader pattern of enforced disappearances and arbitrary detentions in eastern Libya,perpetrated by security forces and affiliated militias operating under Haftar’s command. The group cited previous incidents,such as the unresolved 2019 disappearance of MP Siham Sergewa and the 2023 abduction of dozens of Barghathi family members,many of whom remain missing amid fears of extrajudicial killings.
Amnesty International has urged the global human rights community to act swiftly by submitting appeals to the leadership of the Libyan Arab Armed Forces before 2 December 2025. The organisation stressed that international pressure is vital to ending what it describes as a climate of impunity for gross human rights abuses in eastern Libya,where political repression and systemic violence against dissenting voices have become deeply entrenched.
The Government of National Unity had also condemned in May “dehumanizing detention” of the lawmaker.
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