A/HRC/34/42 and her son had been arbitrarily detained for almost a year and in a second case that 12 former Qadhafi officials had been arbitrarily detained, some for periods of more than four years.10 International human rights law contains an absolute prohibition on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.11 63. UNSMIL/OHCHR has found that arbitrary detention, deprivation of liberty, torture and other ill-treatment are widespread in Libya. 12 Victims include those who are targeted for their identity or opinion, as well as migrants. Perpetrators are primarily armed groups, some of whom act on behalf of the State, and State officials. 64. The use of armed groups to carry out State law enforcement functions has compounded the problems of impunity. Since 2012, armed groups have been nominally integrated into various State structures, including the Ministries of Defence, the Interior and Justice, while in practice maintaining their own command and control structure. Under this arrangement, the State continues to pay their salaries, while the armed groups carry out law enforcement functions, such as arrests and running detention centres, with little or no official oversight or control. 65. It is estimated that there are between 6,000 and 8,000 detainees and prisoners in Ministry of Justice prisons.13 Over 90 per cent are in pretrial detention, often detained for years with no prospect of going to trial. They include conflict-related detainees, a significant number of whom have been in detention since 2011. It is unknown how many detainees are held in detention centres run by the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of the Interior and armed groups. 66. UNSMIL/OHCHR regularly receives information on arbitrary detentions and deprivation of liberty in Libya. Armed groups continue to detain individuals, often based on their political opinion, tribal or other affiliations, or simply to exchange them for other detainees. Typically, those held are detained with no judicial process and sometimes despite release orders by the public prosecution. Detainees are often subjected to torture or other ill-treatment and sometimes coerced into giving confessions. At times, confessions are publicly broadcast on television. Torture includes beating, shooting, cigarette burns, electrocution, suspending detainees upside down and enclosing them in small, suffocating spaces. Detainees can be held arbitrarily for years. 67. Owing to concerns for the safety of detainees and their relatives, UNSMIL/OHCHR is often unable to release publicly information regarding the cases that it documents. In 2016, it received consistently disturbing information regarding brutal patterns of torture, other ill-treatment and inhuman prison conditions in a number of prison facilities, including in Gernada and Kuweifiya prisons in Benghazi; the Al-Jawiya and Tomina prisons in Misrata; and the Abu Salim, Fursan Janzur, Al-Hadhba, Mitiga and Military Intelligence detention facilities and prisons in Tripoli. From May to July 2016, UNSMIL/OHCHR documented six deaths in custody as a result of torture or ill-treatment in detention centres in Tripoli and Misrata. It also received reports that a prison official in Al-Hadhba, was continuing to work in the prison, despite being shown on video footage to have been involved in torturing Al-Sa’di Qadhafi, a son of Muammar Qadhafi. 10 11 12 13 Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, opinions No. 3/2016 and No. 4/2016. See the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, art. 7. In the present report, the term “detention” is intended to reflect deprivation of liberty by both State officials and armed groups, given that armed groups remain in control of many facilities and that many armed groups were nominally brought under the purview of government ministries after 2011. Information provided to UNSMIL at a meeting with officials from the Ministry of Justice on 16 November 2016. 13