NEW YORK, Aug. 4 (UPI) -- A video showing alleged prison abuse of Saadi Gaddafi, son of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, has surfaced.
The New York-based activist group Human Rights Watch noted the nine-minute video appears to depict guards at Libya's al-Habda prison interrogating several inmates, including Gaddafi, 42. Later in the graphic video he is beaten on the soles of his feet with a plastic pipe while screaming in pain.
No date is mentioned, nor is the blindfolded Gaddafi identified by name. He left Libya in 2011 at the start of anti-government protests which brought down his father, and was placed under house arrest in Niger before he was extradited back to Libya in 2014. He has been charged with the killing of one person, an athlete, while he led the Libyan Football Federation, as well as other crimes.
The release of the video comes a week after his brother, Seif, 43, received a death sentence for war crimes in attempting to subdue the revolution which ended his father's reign in Libya.
"The graphic video that seems to show prisoners being beaten raises serious concerns about the methods used to interrogate al-Saadi Gaddafi and other detainees at al-Hadba prison," said Joe Stork of Human Rights Watch in a statement Monday." The Tripoli authorities need to urgently establish exactly what did occur, put in place measures to protect all detainees from abuse, and hold anyone responsible for that kind of treatment to account."
