Public execution in the town of Derna

LIBYA: EGYPTIAN PUBLICLY EXECUTED BY ISLAMIC MILITANTS IN A FOOTBALL STADIUM

August 19, 2014: an Egyptian man was publicly executed in a Libyan football stadium by militants of the Shura Council of Islamic Youth.
An amateur video published on social media sites shows the public execution occurred at the hands of armed militants waving the black banner in the town of Derna, located along the Mediterranean Sea and controlled by the extremist Islamic group.
Militants of the Shura Council of Islamic Youth, a radical group often linked to Al-Qaeda, posted the video of the Egyptian victim, Mohamed Ahmed Mohamed, being brought blindfolded into the football ground in a pick-up truck. Masked men armed with rifles then force him to kneel on a stretcher.
A statement read out prior to the execution accuses him of stabbing to death a Libyan man, Khalid al-Dirsi. It is stated that he admitted to murder and theft during interrogation by the Legitimate Committee for Dispute Resolution, a body apparently operating under the authority of the Shura Council of Islamic Youth. The Committee ruled he was to be “executed” unless pardoned by the family of the victim. It appears from the video that the family refuses to grant pardon.
An unmasked man wearing plain clothes, believed to be the brother of Khalid al-Dirsi, was shown on the video shooting Mohamed Ahmed Mohamed in the head amid applause from the audience.
The state has failed to assert its control of Derna since the end of Libya’s 2011 conflict. There has been no police or army presence since then, while the Derna Court of Appeals has been suspended since June 2013 following the assassination of a senior judge, amid repeated threats to judges by armed groups, including Ansar al-Sharia, which effectively controls the city, enforcing its own interpretation of Islamic law. (Sources: AI, 22/08/2014; Egyptian Streets, 23/08/2014)