Libya

Photos Depict Abuse by Gaddafi’s Forces

While despot’s son promises reform.

A gruesome trove of photos found Tuesday in Libya reveals brutal abuse by Libyan leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi’s forces—while in Tripoli, his son Saif is promising reform with his back against the wall. The images, found in Zawiyah, show corpses bearing the marks of torture—one showed scars down the back of a man dressed only in his underwear, another showed a naked man face down under a sheet with his hands bound. A worker cleaning out the rooms mimicked a gun with hands and said “Gaddafi,” indicating it was an execution chamber. Meanwhile, the strongman’s son Saif suggested in a television interview to resolve the country’s bloody conflict by simply making his father a figurehead—“like the queen of England.” He insisted his father had nothing to fear from the International Criminal Court and the rebels are made up of only “escaped criminals” and “terrorists.”