Click to expand Image Khaled Mohamed Ali El Hishri appeared before Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, December 3, 2025. © 2025 International Criminal Court (The Hague) – The International Criminal Court’s (ICC) upcoming landmark hearing in the case of Khaled Mohamed Ali El Hishri, suspected of crimes against humanity and war crimes, is a long-awaited breakthrough for victims of serious crimes in Libya, Human Rights Watch said today. From May 19 to 21, 2026, ICC judges will hear evidence against El Hishri in a “confirmation of charges” hearing to determine whether the case against him should proceed to trial. He is the first person to face justice before the ICC concerning atrocities in Libya since the United Nations Security Council referred the situation in Libya to the ICC prosecutor in 2011, to investigate serious crimes committed following the country’s uprising. Human Rights Watch has published a question-and-answer document about the upcoming proceedings.“Finally seeing a suspect on the docket at the ICC, 15 years after the end of Libya’s 2011 revolution, sends a powerful message to thousands of victims of serious crimes in Libya that their struggle for justice has not been forgotten,” said Alice Autin, international justice researcher at Human Rights Watch. “As atrocities persist across Libya, progress in this case should spur action from Libyan authorities and the international community to end the pervasive impunity that continues to fuel violence.”El Hishri is a former senior member of the Deterrence Apparatus for Countering Terrorism and Organized Crime (al-Radaa), a Tripoli-based militia affiliated with the Presidential Council and formerly known as the Special Deterrence Force. The ICC Office of the Prosecutor alleges that El Hishri is responsible for 17 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity including torture, rape, sexual violence, murder, enslavement, and persecution. The charges relate to crimes allegedly committed at Libya’s notorious Mitiga Prison in Tripoli, between 2014 and 2020, against both Libyan and non-Libyan detainees. El Hishri is alleged to have directly committed, ordered, and facilitated these crimes through the authority he wielded over the prison.German authorities arrested El Hishri in July 2025 on an ICC warrant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Mitiga Prison. They surrendered him to the court, in The Hague, in December 2025. Human Rights Watch, other human rights and humanitarian organizations as well as the UN have documented inhumane conditions in detention centers and prisons across Libya, many run by abusive and unaccountable armed groups nominally affiliated with the authorities. Successive Libyan governments and interim authorities have failed to end this practice or to investigate and hold accountable those responsible for serious abuses committed in the detention centers.The ICC has issued public arrest warrants against 14 individuals in relation to the Libya investigation, including El Hishri. Four have since died or were killed, and eight others remain at large. ICC judges declared the case against Abdullah al-Senussi, the intelligence chief under former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, inadmissible before the court. German authorities’ successful arrest and surrender of El Hishri to the ICC is especially important because it demonstrates how ICC member countries can contribute to the court’s delivery of justice when they fulfill their obligation to cooperate with the ICC, Human Rights Watch said.In January 2025, Italy, also an ICC member, failed to surrender El Hishri’s alleged co-perpetrator at Mitiga Prison, Osama Elmasry Njeem, to the court after arresting him. Instead, Italian authorities sent him back to Libya. In October 2025, ICC judges found that Italy breached its obligation to cooperate with the court and, in January 2026, referred it to the court’s member countries for further action.Under the Security Council resolution that referred the situation in Libya to the ICC prosecutor and Libyan authorities’ 2025 decision to accept the court’s jurisdiction from 2011 to 2027, Libya—though not an ICC member—has a clear obligation to cooperate with the court. This includes the arrest and transfer to the ICC of individuals wanted by the court who are on its territory. However, Libya’s cooperation with the court to date has remained largely inadequate. Some Libyan authorities have opposed the trial of Libyans outside of Libya as a matter of principle and questioned the need for the ICC’s involvement in some investigations in the country. Libyan authorities have reportedly arrested at least two suspects also wanted by the ICC in relations to serious crimes in Tarhuna, based on domestic investigations. They also reportedly arrested Njeem in Tripoli in November 2025 and placed him in pretrial detention.The ICC is a court of last resort and national courts have the primary responsibility to investigate and prosecute serious crimes committed on their territory. However, when ICC investigations have already led to arrest warrants, domestic authorities have to demonstrate to the court that they are trying the ICC suspects for the same crimes being tried by the court. Njeem’s defense counsel has filed a challenge with ICC judges, claiming that there are ongoing criminal proceedings against Njeem in Libya that cover substantially the same conduct for which he is wanted by the ICC. The issue is currently pending before the ICC judges. Libyan authorities should swiftly transfer all ICC suspects in their custody to the court in The Hague, Human Rights Watch said.Human Rights Watch has found that Libya’s fragmented justice sector remains marred by serious due process violations and laws that breach international norms, and that the judiciary is unwilling and unable to meaningfully investigate serious crimes.“The El Hishri confirmation of charges hearing highlights how important it is for countries to cooperate with the ICC,” Autin said. “Further progress on justice for serious crimes in Libya hinges on Libyan authorities fulfilling their legal duty to surrender suspects sought by the ICC.”