19 – 25 February: LNA leader Khalifa Haftar apparently faces two different lawsuits in the US

Feb 26, 2020 | International actors

There appear to be two separate lawsuits against Libyan National Army (LNA) leader Khalifa Haftar in the US – a Virginia civil suit and a DC District Court suit. Both suits allege that Haftar and his sons are directly responsible for war crimes, including torture. They are seeking restitution from Haftar and his sons using the Torture Victim Protection Act of 1991, which allows family members of victims of extrajudicial killings and torture to sue the people responsible. The cases assert that as Haftar and his sons are U.S. citizens with over 8 million USD in real estate, their properties can be seized to compensate the families of the complainants who suffered bodily harm.

In an interview with Bloomberg on 22 February, the Government of National Accord (GNA)’s Minister of Interior Fathi Bashaagha said that the GNA would be willing to host the establishment of a US military base in Libya as a means to counter Russian.

On 22 February, Turkish President Recep Erdogan said that “We have two martyrs in Libya”. The following day, the LNA said that its forces had killed 16 Turkish fighters in recent weeks, including in Misrata, Tripoli and the town of al-Falah south of the capital.

On 20 February, GNA head Fayez al-Serraj attended a closed-door meeting with Turkish President Recep Erdogan in Istanbul. On 19 February, Russia’s defence minister Sergei Shoigu met with Haftar in Moscow. Shoigu reiterated the important role of the Russia-Turkey brokered ceasefire in mid-January and stressed that the two parties reiterated their respective commitments to a political solution to the conflict.