1996: The Abu Salim prison massacre
June 29th, 2017 Headsman
On this date in 1996, Muammar Qaddafi‘s Libya massacred hundreds of prisoners in mass shootings at Tripoli’s notorious prison Abu Salim.
Human Rights Watch has charged that the death toll might surpass 1,200 although the government’s long-term stonewalling has helped to obscure the scale.
The day prior, inmates had seized a guard to protest poor prison conditions. Qaddafi’s own brother-in-law Abdullah Senussi was dispatched to negotiate a settlement. It was a simple arrangement: release the guard. Have some grievances redressed.
The guard was duly released, in good faith.
And by way of reciprocity, Senussi unleashed a general slaughter. Multiple prisoners have given accounts to human rights investigators of mass murders, inmates “lined up and shot, execution-style, by young conscripts whose choices were shoot, or stand with them to be shot” and buzzard squads picking through the groaning heaps of bullet-riddled men to administer coups de grace. A kitchen worker quoted by this 2001 BBC Witness broadcast who described how
soldiers in khaki uniforms fired upon the prisoners in the courtyard from the rooftops with automatic weapons and then followed through with pistols, individual shots, and killed what he claimed were 1,200 of his fellow prisoners … the number came to him based on the amount of meals he said he had prepared prior to the incident, and thereafter.
Senussi, who was Qaddafi’s spy chief, was at last notice under sentence of death himself in post-Qaddafi Libya.
“The people want the death penalty for Abdullah Senussi for the Abu Salim massacre” reads the poster, according to the BBC.
On this day..
- 1938: Shlomo Ben-Yosef, Mandatory Palestine Zionist protomartyr - 2020
- 1955: Gerhard Benkowitz and Hans-Dietrich Kogel, of the KgU - 2018
- 1726: Joseph Quasson - 2016
- 1900: Benjamin Snell, electricity in his head - 2015
- 1612: Robert Crichton, Lord Sanquhar and mediocre swordsman - 2014
- 1944: A day in mass executions in Axis Europe - 2013
- 1799: Admiral Francesco Caracciolo, Neapolitan - 2012
- 1925: Sheikh Said Piran, Kurdish rebel - 2011
- 1541: Thomas Fiennes, 9th Baron Dacre - 2010
- Feast Day of Saint Peter and Saint Paul - 2009
- 2000: Two kidnappers, televised by Guatemala - 2008
Entry Filed under: 20th Century,Common Criminals,History,Innocent Bystanders,Known But To God,Libya,Mass Executions,No Formal Charge,Ripped from the Headlines,Shot,Summary Executions
Tags: 1990s, 1996, abdullah senussi, abu salim prison, june 29, muammar gaddafi, muammar qaddafi, tripoli
Something similar though not to the same scale happened at the US Prison of Attica. False rumors were spread that the prisoners had killed some of the hostages that they were holding. The guards were then ordered to storm the prison and a vengful massacre took place. I would like to massacre whoever started that rumor.