Five defendants appeared in the dock in the Libyan city of Zawiyah on Tuesday in what court officials said was the first civil trial of suspected supporters of slain dictator Muammar Qaddafi.
Judge Amer al-Turki did not read out any charge sheet before adjourning the trial for a week at the request of defense lawyers.
But court official Ali al-Shaab Mohammed said the five were accused of "forming a criminal gang with the aim of carrying out acts of sabotage and of possessing unlicensed weapons."
They were all detained in Zawiyah, 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of Tripoli, during the uprising that overthrew Qaddafi last year.
Judge Amer al-Turki did not read out any charge sheet before adjourning the trial for a week at the request of defense lawyers.
But court official Ali al-Shaab Mohammed said the five were accused of "forming a criminal gang with the aim of carrying out acts of sabotage and of possessing unlicensed weapons."
They were all detained in Zawiyah, 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of Tripoli, during the uprising that overthrew Qaddafi last year.
Two lawyers appeared for the defense in the brand new courtroom, one of them a woman wearing the full niqab veil.
In early February, a first group of alleged Qaddafi supporters went on trial before a military court in Libya’s second-largest city Benghazi, but Mohammed said the Zawiyah hearing was the first before a civil court.
The Benghazi court later ruled itself incompetent to hear a case against civilian defendants and referred it to a civil court.
Several former top officials of Qaddafi’s regime and hundreds of his supporters, both soldiers and civilians, have been held for months, many of them in prisons run by former rebel militias that are outside government control.
The government said it has in recent weeks taken control of several militia prisons and moved to get the courts back up and running.
In early February, a first group of alleged Qaddafi supporters went on trial before a military court in Libya’s second-largest city Benghazi, but Mohammed said the Zawiyah hearing was the first before a civil court.
The Benghazi court later ruled itself incompetent to hear a case against civilian defendants and referred it to a civil court.
Several former top officials of Qaddafi’s regime and hundreds of his supporters, both soldiers and civilians, have been held for months, many of them in prisons run by former rebel militias that are outside government control.
The government said it has in recent weeks taken control of several militia prisons and moved to get the courts back up and running.
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