Libyan security personnel routinely torture detainees, the US State Department said in a report describing the country's human rights situation as poor.
The trial in which five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor were convicted of infecting Libyan children with the virus that causes AIDS saw authorities limit the defendants' right to call witnesses, the report on Libya's 2006 rights record added. The government of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi does not react publicly to foreign criticism of its rights record.
Saif al-Islam, Gaddafi's most prominent son, has said there have been failings in the north African country's rights record but added that the government was working to correct them.
On torture, the report said: "The law prohibits such practices, but security personnel routinely tortured prisoners during interrogations or as punishment." "Government agents reportedly detained and tortured foreign workers, particularly those from sub-Saharan Africa. Reports of torture were difficult to corroborate since many detainees were held incommunicado."
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