Tripoli, 24 May:
Families of some of the prisoners at Tripoli's Ain Zara prison started protesting at the main gates on Tuesday about treatment of those detained there, claiming that they are being tortured and abused. They say they plan to stay until they have guarantees that the prisoners are being better treated.
The sister of one prisoner, Najat Taweel, said that her brother had been badly tortured as had 20 others. She claimed that prison guards have forced prisoners to remove their clothes and throw them in sewage water and had beaten them with metal rods.
Taweel also told the Tripoli-based Tadamon solidarity news service that she was scared that the guards would punish inmates still further now that their families have gone public with the allegations.
She claimed that most of those being held and tortured were revolutionaries who had been accused of committing murders while fighting against Qaddafi's forces.