'Tortured' Yazidi migrant released after weeks in Libya detention

A Yazidi man allegedly tortured in detention in Libya was released on Wednesday, his brother and a human rights organisation have said.

Moustafa Mohammad Sharaf, 37, was among some 110 Syrian and Lebanese migrants who left northern Lebanon by sea on 10 August, headed for Italy.

They were reportedly captured en route by the Libyan militia Tariq Ben Zeyad Brigade (TBZ) and later jailed in Benghazi in Libya's northeast, according to MENA Rights Group, a Swiss-based legal advocacy organisation.

Following Sharaf's release after weeks spent in detention, his brother Farhad Mamo said: "It's a great feeling, a beautiful feeling, that something that was missing has returned."

He said he hoped the United Nations would help get Sharaf out of Libya given he is a Yazidi, adding there was a high level of Islamist extremism in the country.

The Yazidis are an ethnoreligious community native to Iraq, Syria and Turkey who have suffered heavy persecution in recent years at the hands of the Islamic State group. Sharaf and Mamo are from the Syrian city of Afrin.

Most of the 110 migrants were let go on 25 August, but MENA Rights Group legal researcher Tanya Boulakovski told The New Arab last week that between two and seven were still detained.

No money paid

On Thursday, Boulakovski said the migrants who remained in detention had been released the night before, adding that they had not paid any ransom. They were still in Benghazi, she said.

"We are pleased to learn of the release of the migrants who were detained," she said.

"We hope that their release marks the beginning of a process that will allow them to seek asylum in a safe country, without further harm and with full respect of their human rights."

MENA Rights Group had submitted the cases of four migrants, including Sharaf, to the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances.

'Torture'

Mamo, who lives in Sweden, told The New Arab last week that his brother was being blackmailed and humiliated because he belongs to the Yazidi community.

"He tried to contact me from the phones of one of the kidnappers and they demanded a ransom of €4,000 because he is not Muslim," Mamo added.

"My family and I are very worried about him because he is being subjected to torture and beatings and because his health is deteriorating as a result of the violence he is experiencing."

Sharaf, a married father of two children, grew up in Mamo's family after his mother passed away.

The two are not biological brothers, though Mamo is also a Yazidi.

From Lebanon to Libya

The boat carrying the 110 migrants reported being pursued by a ship displaying a Libyan flag on 18 August.

The migrants told the Alarm Phone hotline for refugee boats in distress that armed men were firing at them and one person on board had been hurt.

The lawyer Mohammad Sablouh said he had learnt from migrants' families of nine people injured, Lebanese news website L'Orient Today reported in August.

MENA Rights Group said migrants told their families they were abducted by a unit from the Tariq Ben Zeyad brigade.

TBZ is an armed group run by Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar's son Saddam.

Haftar backs eastern Libya's Government of National Stability, one of two rival administrations in the country.

TBZ brought the migrants to the northwestern city of Misrata, according to MENA Rights Group, though this part of Libya is run by the other, internationally-recognised government.

The NGO added that the migrants were then moved to Ganfouda Detention Centre in Benghazi in the northeast.

The New Arab was unable to confirm which authorities were in control of the jail.