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Libyan court jails 12 officials over deadly floods

The officials, who were responsible for managing the country's dams, were sentenced to between 9 and 27 years in prison by the Court of Appeal in Derna

Published: Sun 28 Jul 2024, 6:09 PM

Updated: Sun 28 Jul 2024, 6:10 PM

  • By
  • Reuters

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Abdul Salam Ibrahim Al-Qadi, 43 years old, walks on the rubble in front of his house, searching for his missing father and brother after the deadly floods in Derna, Libya, September 28, 2023. — Reuters file

Abdul Salam Ibrahim Al-Qadi, 43 years old, walks on the rubble in front of his house, searching for his missing father and brother after the deadly floods in Derna, Libya, September 28, 2023. — Reuters file

A Libyan court has jailed 12 officials in connection with the collapse of a series of dams in Derna last year that killed thousands of the city's residents, the Attorney-General said on Sunday.

The officials, who were responsible for managing the country's dams, were sentenced to between 9 and 27 years in prison by the Court of Appeal in Derna. Four officials were acquitted.

Derna, a coastal city with a population of 125,000, was devastated last September by massive floods caused by Storm Daniel.

Thousands were killed and thousands more were missing as a result of the floods that burst dams, swept away buildings and destroyed entire neighbourhoods.

The Attorney-General in Tripoli said three of the defendants were ordered to "return money obtained from illicit gains", according to a statement, which did not give the names or positions of those on trial.

"The convicted officials have been charged with negligence, premeditated murder and waste of public money," a judicial source in Derna told Reuters by phone, adding that they had the right to appeal against the verdicts.

A report in January by the World Bank, United Nations and European Union said deadly flash flooding in Derna constituted a climate and environmental catastrophe that required $1.8 billion to fund reconstruction and recovery.

The report said the dams' collapse was partly due to their design, based on outdated hydrological information, and partly a result of poor maintenance and governance problems during more than a decade of conflict in Libya.

Libya has been split since 2014 between rival power centres ruling in east and west following the toppling of Muammar Gaddafi in a Nato-backed uprising in 2011.



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