On 17 July, the Libyan-American Alliance (LAA) announced that it had filed a lawsuit against Russia’s Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and Libyan National Army (LNA) commander Khalifa Haftar for their alleged involvement in war crimes committed against Libyan civilians. The lawsuit alleges that Prigozhin and Haftar, ‘while acting under the actual or apparent authority or colour of law of a foreign nation, deliberately subjected the plaintiff to torture and inflicted torture and death upon the plaintiff’s family members. As such, they are accountable for damages under the Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA).’
The plaintiff in the case, Libyan national Muhammed Aboujaylah Ali Anbees, alleges that Wagner fighters stationed in Libya killed three members of his family in September 2019 in the village of Espiaa, south of Tripoli, after detaining them without explanation. Anbees says his family members were shot and claims he is a survivor of that alleged shooting.