Arabic version: فيديو من ليبيا يثير الغضب بسبب جلد علني

According to France 24, a video filmed on July 21 in Sabha, Libya, shows a woman accused of adultery receiving a public flogging after being sentenced to 100 lashes. The footage, widely shared on social media, shows the woman kneeling on a mattress in a street blocked by a judicial police vehicle as an officer reads the verdict and another carries out the punishment.

France 24 reported that the woman received 23 lashes in 30 seconds. The announcement heard in the video said the sentence was being executed in connection with an adultery case under a court judgment. The recording drew online criticism over the punishment being carried out in public, questions about the absence of the other party and objections to laws criminalising extramarital relationships.

Libya’s Law No. 70 of 1973 criminalises “zina”, defined as sexual relations between a man and a woman outside marriage. The law provides for 100 lashes for men and women, with a judge able to add a prison term of up to five years. France 24 said the sentence must be carried out at a police station in the presence of a public prosecutor and a qualified doctor.

Marwa Salem, a Libyan human rights activist and journalist for Noon, said flogging is rarely enforced in practice because the threshold for proving the offence is exceptionally high. She said allegations of adultery can nevertheless be used to intimidate women or pressure them in marriage, custody and divorce disputes. Salem also cited accounts alleging repeated public floggings on the same street in Sabha, including an incident involving five men witnessed by schoolchildren in March.

After the video’s release, the Benghazi Judicial Police Office announced an investigation and the temporary suspension of officials involved in carrying out the sentence, recording it and releasing the footage. It said sentences must be executed in accordance with the regulations governing them. The case comes as women’s rights in Libya have faced increasing restrictions in recent years, France 24 reported.