The Head of Investigations Bureau at the General Prosecutor’s office, Al-Saddiq Al-Soor, confirmed that 12 inmates were murdered on Friday dawn after being released Thursday from Al-Ruwaimi prison, which is located in Ain Zara in the suburbs of the capital, Tripoli.

Al-Soor said the murdered inmates were imprisoned for the case known as “Al-Mathaba” in which a number of members of the former regime’s Revolutionary Work Team were charged with killing and torturing protesters on February 19-20, 2011.

“The families of the killed protesters filed a lawsuit against a number of the Revolutionary Work Team members accusing them of murder and torture, then after all the investigation work was done by the Attorney General’s office in Tripoli, the accused members were sent to the criminal court, charged with murder and being part of a gang.” Al-Soor explained.

He added that in 2014, the case was sent to one of the crimes departments at Tripoli Appeals Court, which investigated the case for two years. However, on last Wednesday, a release verdict was delivered regarding 19 imprisoned persons on the condition that they frequent police stations on the first and third Wednesdays of every month, besides confiscating their passports.

“The families of 12 inmates came last Thursday and brought their sons’ passports to the Attorney General’s deputy office, which sent the families with the release verdict of the 12 inmates to Al-Ruwaimi prison so that they are released on Thursday as per the court’s verdict.” Elaborated AL-Soor.

He said they left the prison with their families according to the prison’s reports, after that we were shocked to find the 12 released inmates murdered bodies, pointing out that the General Prosecutor’s office appointed a committee to investigate the incident and told the criminal investigation department to start searching for the perpetrators to bring them to justice, especially that the forensic doctor proved that the 12 inmates were shot dead.