On December 14, security forces affiliated with the U.N.-backed Government of National Accord detained al-Bom near Tripoli’s Mitiga International Airport, according to news reports. Al-Bom is a freelance investigative journalist and founder of the Libyan Organization for Independent Media, a local press freedom group, according to those reports. No charges against al-Bom have been made public, Karim Salem, a Libya researcher at the regional human rights group Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, told CPJ via phone after talking to the journalist’s lawyers. Al-Bom won widespread recognition for his 2016 reporting on human rights and LGBT issues in Libya, according to news reports. Today, the European Parliament Subcommittee on Human Rights issued a statement on Twitter calling for his unconditional release.

Source: The North Africa Journal December 17, 2019 21:22 UTC