Libyan court jails four human traffickers for up to 22 years

Libya's Tripoli Criminal Court on Tuesday convicted four members of "a criminal gang" involved in human trafficking, abductions for ransom and torture, with sentences up to 22 years, the attorney general's office said on its Facebook page.



The attorney general's office did not disclose the names of the four defendants, who were sentenced in absentia to between 12 and 22 years in prison.



Libya has become a transit route for migrants fleeing conflict and poverty to Europe via dangerous routes across the desert and over the Mediterranean since the toppling of Muammar Gaddafi in a NATO-backed uprising in 2011.



Charges against the four defendants including smuggling illegal migrants from Zuwara, a coastal city west of Tripoli, the attorney general's office said.



The gang also kidnapped migrants, forcing their families to pay ransom by sending them "videos documenting the victims' torture", it added.