Ali Elakermi was beaten and tortured following his arrest for being a member of an Islamic political party in 1973, at age 22, during a purge of intellectuals, Islamists and others by then-leader Muammar Gaddafi.
A report on the allAfrica.com site notes that he was cut with razor blades, and his wounds were rubbed with salt by his captors. He and other inmates in the Tripoli jail were forced to listen for hours to recordings of Gaddafi's speeches: 'They played them the whole day. Then they played revolutionary songs. Some prisoners lost their minds.' Released in 2002, Elakermi is Libya's second-longest-serving political prisoner and one of the people he blames for his ordeal is on trial. Abdullah Al-Sanussi, the former head of Libyan military intelligence and Gaddafi's brother-in-law, is accused of orchestrating the massacre of more than 1 200 prisoners in 1996. He is in the dock with 21 others from Gaddafi's inner circle, including Gaddafi's son, Saif Al-Islam. A report on the almanar.com site notes that al-Islam this week appeared in the dock in Zintan west of the capital in a trial that was then adjourned to 12 December 'to allow the attendance of other accused in the case'. Full report on the allAfrica.com site Full report on the almanar.com site