The International Criminal Court Friday made public arrest warrants for six Libyans suspected of being part of a murderous gang that brutalised the town of Tarhuna in the war-torn country.
ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan said three of the suspects were prominent members of the Kaniyat militia that took power in Tarhuna and terrorised the inhabitants.
Khan said the three others were associated with the Kaniyat gang, which systematically executed opponents and slaughtered their entire families.
The suspects include Abdurahem al-Kani, one of the brothers that led the militia, which would parade through the town in shows of force -- with a pair of leashed lions roaring at the crowd.
Khan said he had gathered evidence that Tarhuna residents had been subjected to war crimes including murder, torture, sexual violence, and rape.
"In my visit to Tarhuna in 2022, I heard accounts of people kept in appalling and inhumane conditions, and saw farms and landfill sites that were turned into mass graves," he said.
Human Rights Watch has said at least 338 people were abducted or reported missing during the Kaniyat's five-year rule.
After the fall and killing of veteran Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi in a NATO-backed 2011 revolt, an array of armed groups and militia forces arose to fill the vacuum.
In Tarhuna, it was the Al-Kani militia, also known as the Kaniyat, who took power in 2015.
The town, some 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of the capital Tripoli with a population of 40,000, became infamous as a symbol of the atrocities.
The lions the Al-Kani brothers kept during their reign of terror were rumoured to feed on the flesh of their victims.
For a time, the brothers sided with Tripoli-based militias.
But when military strongman Khalifa Haftar launched an assault to seize the capital, the clan switched sides and offered him Tarhuna as a rear base.
When Haftar's forces were routed, the Kani brothers disappeared -- some are believed killed, others to be in hiding.
Abdurahem al-Kani, the man now wanted by the ICC, "was a leader of the Kaniyat and was jointly in charge of what was referred to by one person as the 'military wing'," according to the warrant.
"The information available suggests that in some instances, al-Kani personally killed, tortured and/or mistreated" victims, the warrant alleges.
The warrants were issued in April 2023 but unsealed on Friday.