US judge tosses out lawsuits against Libyan commander accused of war crimes
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A US judge has filed a series of civil lawsuits against a Libyan military commander formerly living in Virginia accused of killing innocent civilians during that country’s civil war.
At a hearing Friday, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema said she has no jurisdiction to preside over a case alleging war crimes were committed in Libya, even though the suspect, Khailfa Hifter, has U.S. citizenship and has more lived in northern Virginia for more than twenty years. suburbs of the country’s capital as an exile of Moammar Gadhafi’s regime.
The ruling was a significant reversal of fortune for Hifter. In 2022, Brinkema filed a default judgment against Hifter after he refused to participate in planned depositions about his role in the fighting that has ravaged the country over the past decade.
But Hifter retained new attorneys who convinced the judge to reopen the case and made Hifter available for deposition. He took part in two separate statements in 2022 and 2023 and denied orchestrating attacks on civilians.
Hifter was once Gadhafi’s lieutenant and defected to the US in the 1980s. It is widely believed that he collaborated with the CIA during his exile.
He returned to Libya in 2011 to support anti-Gadhafi forces who rose up against the dictator and killed him. During the country’s civil war, he led the self-styled Libyan National Army, which controlled much of the eastern half of Libya, with support from countries including Russia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. He continues to hold sway in the eastern half of the country.
In the lawsuits, first filed in 2019, plaintiffs say family members were killed by military bombings carried out by Hifter’s army in civilian areas.
The lawsuits also alleged that Hifter and his family owned a significant amount of real estate in Virginia, which could have been used to pay off any judgment that might have been entered against him.
While the lawsuits were being argued on technical issues of jurisdiction, one of Hifter’s attorneys, Paul Kamenar, said Hifter denied any role in the deaths of civilians.
“He is not the ruthless figure that everyone wants to portray him as,” Kamenar said in a telephone interview on Sunday.
Faisal Gill, an attorney for the plaintiffs in one of the three lawsuits that Brinkema dismissed on Friday, said he plans to appeal the dismissal.
Mark Zaid, attorney for another group of plaintiffs, called Brinkema’s ruling baffling and said he believes the court’s jurisdiction to hear the case had already been established at an earlier stage of the case.
“A US citizen committed war crimes abroad and has thus far escaped civil liability,” Zaid said in an emailed statement on Sunday.
In court documents, Hifter attempted to claim immunity from the lawsuits as head of state. At one point, the judge paused the cases because she feared the lawsuits were being used to influence planned presidential elections in Libya, in which Hifter was a candidate. Those elections were later postponed.