![Photojournalist Ismail Bouzreiba Al-Zway [218News/Twitter]](https://i0.wp.com/d2.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/%D8%A7%D9%95%D8%B3%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%B9%D9%8A%D9%84_%D8%A8%D9%88%D8%B2%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%A8%D8%A9.jpg?fit=920%2C603&ssl=1)
The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) has expressed its dissatisfaction with the decision of a military court in Benghazi which sentenced photojournalist, Ismail Bouzreiba Al-Zway, to 15 years in prison.
In a statement, UNSMIL said: “The mission is concerned that the detention and trial appear to violate Libya’s laws as well as its international obligations.”
The EU delegation called on “the authorities to release Al-Zway immediately and ensure respect for his fundamental rights and the right to freedom of expression.”
A military court in eastern Libya, which is governed by renegade General Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA), on Friday sentenced a local photojournalist to 15 years in prison on terrorism-related charges.
The 39-year-old was first detained by security agents while covering a local news event in his hometown of Ajdabiya, east Libya, in 2018, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. He was accused of working for Al-Nabaa, a privately owned Libyan news channel which broadcasts from Turkey that eastern Libyan authorities consider to be affiliated with Islamist “terrorism”.