CAIRO: A member of a criminal group linked to a mass grave containing the bodies of 21 migrants will stand trial on a charge of human trafficking, Libya’s attorney general’s office said Friday.
The office said in a statement on Facebook that the gang member was being referred to court.
Authorities found evidence that the criminal gang organized illegal migration and trafficked people in Al-Kufra city in southeast Libya and Ajdabiya city in the eastern part of the country. The attorney general’s statement didn’t identify the gang.
Libya has been a main transit point for migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East. The country plunged into chaos after a 2011 uprising toppled and killed longtime dictator Muammar Qaddafi.
It remains unclear how the 21 migrants died or when, or exactly when and where they were found. The attorney general’s office released images Friday showing bodies wrapped in black plastic bags, with some remains partially covered in dirt. The Associated Press could not immediately independently verify the images.
The statement said 195 migrants were released by the criminal group after being detained and subjected to torture aimed at extorting ransom from their families. Authorities arrested one of the members of the group, while remaining members are still being pursued, according to the attorney general’s office.
Many migrants who take the risky sea route to reach Europe seeking a better lives do not survive. Most recently, at least 42 people went missing and were presumed dead after a boat carrying migrants capsized off the coast of Libya, according to the International Organization for Migration.
The latest shipwreck adds to the rising death toll in the Central Mediterranean, where more than 1,000 people have died since the beginning of 2025, including over 500 lost off the coast of Libya, according to the IOM’s Missing Migrants Project.
After Qaddafi was killed, Libya was split in two, with rival administrations in the east and west, each backed by armed groups and foreign governments. The western part of the country is governed by Prime Minister Abdul-Hamid Dbeibah’s government in Tripoli, and the administration of Prime Minister Ossama Hammad rules in the east.
