Concerns are mounting over the plight of 11 Christians imprisoned in Libya after trials that Amnesty International has condemned as deeply flawed and unjust.
The rights group has called for the immediate quashing of convictions that it says violate both international standards of justice and the fundamental human right to freedom of religion, reports Christian Daily International-Morning Star News.
The case involves nine Libyan men, one Libyan woman, and one Pakistani man who, on 15 April, were sentenced to prison terms ranging from three to 15 years. Charges included “insulting Islam”, “insulting religious sanctities and rituals using the internet”, “calling for the establishment of a banned group” and “promoting the change of the fundamental principles of the constitution”.
Amnesty International stated that the trials were grossly unfair, with judges failing to examine witnesses or evidence.
“Throughout the sessions of the trial, which started in September 2024, judges never examined witnesses or evidence against the defendants,” Amnesty reported.
“They also never questioned any members of the ISA [Internal Security Agency], whose investigations were the only basis for the criminal investigations into the defendants.
“The hearings were limited to judges confirming the presence of the defendants and their lawyers requesting their release pending trial.”
Instead of evaluating the charges, Amnesty said, the judges repeatedly ordered detention without justification and delayed proceedings.
The Christians were arrested in March 2023 by the Tripoli-based Internal Security Agency on accusations of proselytising. Among them were two men from the US, who were released after only a few days without charge. The rest faced a grim ordeal that Amnesty says included torture, prolonged arbitrary detention, denial of legal counsel, and forced confessions.
“Between 6 and 13 April 2023, the ISA published on its official YouTube channel videos of showing seven of the detainees, where they confessed to ‘converting to and promoting Christianity inside the country’, contrary to their right to the presumption of innocence,” Amnesty said. The two US detainees also appeared in one of these videos before their release.
According to Amnesty, defendants were denied lawyers during crucial interrogations, barred from reviewing case files, and subjected to questioning based on fabricated or irrelevant charges.
“Prosecutors denied all defendants but one the right to have a lawyer of their choice during the initial questioning,” the group stated.
“Prosecutors also failed to assign lawyers to represent the defendants, instead conducting the questioning without the presence of any lawyers.”
Initially, prosecutors accused the Christians of apostasy – punishable by death under Article 291 of Libya’s Penal Code. That charge was dropped in January 2024, when the public prosecutor concluded it lacked a legal basis: “The apostasy penalty – death as prescribed in Article 291 of the Penal Code – was dropped following the defendants’ declaration of repentance.”
Amnesty emphasised that promoting Christianity is not a crime under Libyan law. In fact, the indictment itself admitted, “By reviewing the penal provisions of the Penal Code and the amended and complementary laws, there is no article that prohibits calling for other religions or punishes it.”
Nevertheless, prosecutors pressed ahead with other accusations, particularly against the Pakistani defendant, alleging he came to Libya to establish a banned Christian group. In reality, Amnesty reported, he had lived in the country since arriving with his family in 1992 at the age of 10.
Beyond the courtroom, the imprisonment has devastated families. The wife of one detainee, speaking anonymously for security reasons, described months of anguish and fear.
“My husband told the lawyer how his interrogators had tortured him, both physically and emotionally, since the time he was taken into custody,” she told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News from the country where she and her daughter have fled.
“The lawyer was informed of the charges against him when the legal proceedings commenced in the Indictment Chamber in Tripoli in January 2024.”
She described the torment of waiting for news: “We have hoped for a miracle every single day. The situation had reached a point where there was absolutely no information about him, and I was literally begging for proof of his life.
“I heard his voice on the phone for the first time after five months, on 8 August 2023, and I can’t express how relieved I felt after that call.”
Her husband later spoke with their daughter shortly before sentencing. The girl, who was a baby when he was taken, will turn four this year.
“She’ll be turning 4 this year and recognises her father from his photographs. It breaks my heart every time she asks me when he’ll come home,” the wife said. “I tell her that he will be back with her soon.”
The child, she added, continues to pray daily.
“She has made plans that when he comes she’ll go learn skating with him, she’ll paint her nails,” she said. “She has so many wishes and plans she wants to do with her dad.”
Amnesty has urged the Libyan authorities to immediately review cases brought by the ISA, citing widespread human rights violations including torture, enforced disappearance, and arbitrary detention.
“He must open prompt, thorough, independent, impartial, transparent, and effective investigations into the allegations of human rights violations including torture, enforced disappearance, and arbitrary detention against all suspected ISA members,” the group demanded of Libya’s public prosecutor.
“Libyan authorities should immediately quash the convictions and sentences of those imprisoned solely for the peaceful exercise of their human rights,” Amnesty concluded.
The controversy highlights the precarious state of Christian minorities in Libya, where law, religion, and politics intersect amid ongoing instability. The country, fractured since the fall of Muammar al-Gaddafi in 2011, remains divided between rival governments and plagued by insecurity.
Open Doors ranked Libya fourth on its 2025 World Watch List of the world’s most dangerous countries to be a Christian.
As families wait in anguish and international bodies press for change, the plight of these 11 Christians shines a spotlight on both Libya’s broken justice system and the urgent need for protection of religious freedom in the region.
