Cairo:A military court in eastern Libya sentenced a local photojournalist to 15 years in prison over terrorism-related defects, which was criticized by human rights groups on Friday. The Committee to Protect Journalists, a global group working for freedom of the press, reported that Ismail Bjoriba al-Jwee (39) was caught by security agents while covering a local event in his hometown of Azdabiya. He is accused of working for al-Naba, a private Libyan news channel broadcast from Turkey that East Libyan officials believe is linked to Islamic “terrorism”.
Azdabia, like most eastern and southern parts of Libya, is also under the control of military commander Khalifa Haftar who has called for the elimination of Islamic militias from the country. A spokesman for Haftar’s army did not comment on the journalist’s sentence. Three Libyan press organizations issued a joint statement on Friday, saying that they had just come to know about a secretive trial in May in which a military court called al-Jwe to work for a TV channel supporting terrorism Sentenced to 15 years in prison for committing a crime. The journalist was barred from speaking with his lawyer or informing the family.
