TRIPOLI, Libya, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- Human Rights Watch called on the Libyan government to conduct a probe into a prison riot in which more than a dozen detainees were injured.
The rights organization said it was reviewing accounts of confrontations between prison guards and detainees at the main correction facility in Tripoli, often referred to by its former name, al-Roueimy.
Human Rights Watch said 19 inmates were injured by gunshot or shrapnel wounds when the melee erupted following a two-day hunger strike last week.
"Anyone found to have used unlawful violence against prisoners should be held to account under Libya's criminal law," director of Middle East programs Joe Stork said in a statement Tuesday from Tripoli.
Stork's organization said prison officials called on a security committee made up of former rebel fighters to help quell the violence at al-Roueimy prison. It said some of the 500 prisoners at the detention center are supporters of the former government of Moammar Gadhafi, ousted and killed during civil war in 2011.
"The government needs to establish what happened on Aug. 26 and explain how so many prisoners had gunshot wounds and other serious injuries," Stork said.
