THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AFP) — The International Criminal Court said Wednesday that it had rejected a challenge to the tribunal’s jurisdiction by a former Libyan prison chief accused of killing, torturing and raping detainees.

Khaled Mohamed Ali El Hishri will face 17 charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes between 2014 and 2020 when he was head of the women’s section at the notorious Mitiga prison near Tripoli.

The 48-year-old, who became known as “the angel of death”, is the first Libyan suspect to be handled by the ICC following its inquiry into events in the North African country that was plunged into conflict after the 2011 fall of Muammar Gaddafi.

El Hishri is accused of personally raping, killing and torturing prisoners. He has denied the charges, and his lawyers said the court did not have jurisdiction in the case.

A UN Security Council resolution allowed the ICC inquiry from 2011, and the Libyan government accepted ICC jurisdiction in 2025.

And in a statement, the court confirmed the charges and said it had decided that it “may exercise jurisdiction in the case of the Prosecutor v. Khaled Mohamed Ali El Hishri and rejected the defence’s challenge”. It did not set a date for a full trial.

El-Hishri, who was detained last year, “was widely known as a notorious torturer at the helm of Mitiga prison,” ICC deputy prosecutor Nazhat Shameem Khan told a preliminary hearing in May.

Witnesses said he was a prime instigator of violence against detainees who gave him the “angel of death” nickname.

Oil-rich Libya is still grappling with the aftermath of the conflict and political chaos which followed the NATO-backed uprising that toppled Gaddafi. It is divided into two rival governments.

The ICC, which tries individuals for the world’s worst crimes, is also seeking Osama Almasri Najim, head of Libya’s judicial police, on charges also relating to alleged crimes at Mitiga prison.