Commander Khalifa Haftar convicted by a U.S. court for war crimes

File photo of Libyan militia commander Khalifa Haftar on Aug. 14, 2017.   -  
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Ivan Sekretarev/Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

A court in the U.S decided Commander Khalifa Haftar was liable for war crimes for extrajudicial killings and torture in Libya.  Several Libyan families claim the chief of the eastern-based Libyan National Army is responsible for the bombing or torture of their relatives.

A federal judge in Virginia said Haftar was convicted since he hadn't cooperated with justice.  She added the senior field marshal could go on appeal and more court hearings were necessary to determine the compensation amounts.

The families filed their lawsuit in 2019 and 2020 under the 1991 US law, the Torture Victim Protection Act, which allows all citizens in the world to press charges on someone who, acting in an official capacity for a foreign nation, has committed acts of torture and/or extrajudicial killing.

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