Libyan organizations have expressed their objection to the meeting of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, with Khalifa Haftar in Benghazi, asking him to apologize as the latter is accused of war crimes.

A statement by the “Lawyers for Justice in Libya”, the “Libyan Crimes Monitoring Organization”, the “Amazigh Women’s Movement” and the “Libyan Center for Freedom of the Press”, stressed that the meeting of the Prosecutor with Haftar was very offensive not only to the victims of Haftar’s alleged crimes, but to all victims and communities affected by the crimes which are part of the ICC's investigation.

The organizations indicated that golding the meeting shortly after the Prosecutor met with groups of survivors and families of victims in Tarhouna made the issue worse, as the city was under the control of Haftar together with the locations of a number of mass graves investigated by the ICC and the UN fact-finding mission.

They reiterated that Karim Khan's willingness to hold a public meeting with the head of an armed group that is struggling to gain political and international legitimacy seriously undermines the credibility of the court, and calls into question its impartiality and legitimacy in considering the situation in Libya.

The statement explained that Karim Khan's willingness to hold a public meeting with the head of an armed group that is struggling to gain political and international legitimacy seriously undermines the credibility of the ICC, and casts doubt on its impartiality and legitimacy in tackling the situation in Libya.

It also stressed that the step taken by Khan greatly undermined the confidence of the victims and all Libyans in the ICC, which would hinder the ICC's ability to investigate crimes committed in Libya.