Public flogging video sparks outrage over Libya's justice system and women's rights

A video circulating on social media shows a woman kneeling in a public square in Sabha, a Saharan oasis city more than 600 kilometres south of Tripoli, as a judicial police officer delivers 23 lashes in half a minute. The punishment, filmed on 21 July 2026, is part of a 100-lash sentence for adultery handed down under Law No.70 of 1973, which criminalises sexual relations outside marriage. A second official reads the verdict aloud while bystanders watch. The footage has ignited a fierce online debate about the legality of public corporal punishment and the absence of the woman's male counterpart.

Libya has been split since the 2011 overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi. The UN-recognised Government of National Unity sits in Tripoli, while the east and south answer to the Government of National Stability, backed by General Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army. Sabha falls under the latter. In its 2025 report, the World Organisation Against Torture warned that torture was being used as a disciplinary tool in police stations across the country.

Legal framework and practice

The Libyan legal code blends civil, customary and Islamic Sharia law. Under the 1973 statute, both men and women face 100 lashes for zina, with a possible five-year prison term. Yet Marwa Salem, a Libyan human rights activist and journalist for the outlet Noon, says the evidentiary bar is so high that floggings are rarely carried out. Instead, she argues, adultery accusations serve as leverage to pressure women into surrendering rights in marriage, custody and divorce disputes. In so-called honour killings, Article 375 of the penal code can reduce sentences when perpetrators claim the victim was caught in an illicit relationship.

"We only saw these things happening when ISIS was in control of certain parts of Libya. And it scares me to see that this kind of thing is systematic and part of the current system."

The speaker is Noura Eljerbi, a Libyan journalist and women's rights advocate now based in Turkey. She says the video reveals a justice system that humiliates rather than protects.

Pattern of public punishments

Salem says this is not an isolated incident. Journalists in Sabha report a previous public flogging of a man on the same street, filmed by a photojournalist accompanying authorities, footage later deleted. Witnesses allege repeated public floggings by the same judicial police unit. A parent collecting his daughter from school in March described watching five men flogged in full view of children.

Widening restrictions on women

The UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women flagged alarming levels of abuse in June 2023. Since then, women travelling alone must file forms explaining why they lack a male guardian. In November 2024, Emad Trabelsi, interior minister in the Tripoli government, proposed mandatory veiling from age nine, a travel ban without a male escort, and a prohibition on mixed-gender gatherings. The measures were shelved after an outcry but are reportedly enforced informally. Salem documents cases of women denied hotel rooms for being unaccompanied and passport officials demanding hijabs or sexual favours to process paperwork.

Official response and what comes next

The Benghazi Judicial Police Office, answering to the eastern administration, has opened an investigation and suspended the officials who carried out, recorded and released the footage. It insists sentences must follow procedural regulations. Salem sees a glimmer of hope in Libya's judiciary but says genuine accountability in this case would be a critical test of whether the system can police itself.