This article covers the trial of Khalifa Hafter, who failed to show up for a Monday court date in Virginia. Khalifa Hafter is a Libyan military officer and was the leader of the Libyan national army during the Libyan civil war. As a result of directives given under his leadership, Khalifa Hafter is being tried for war crimes in Alexandria. Khalifa Hafter is being accused of ordering and allowing his soldiers to kill and torture the Libyan civilians they captured during the civil war. Originally, this trial was to have taken place a year ago however it was postponed due to heightened tensions brought by the Libyan presidential elections. Later the case was further delayed when Khalifa Hafter was unable to make the scheduled date of the deposition as his position within the Libyan military made him unavailable on the proposed date, thus it was moved to May 9th. Monday both plaintiff and defendant’s lawyers were supposed to question Khalifa Hafter however he failed to appear in court. This has sparked slight panic within the defense lawyers based in America as his failure to appear before the court will negatively impact the arguments of his defense. Khalifa Hafter was involved in financially backing several insurgency groups during both of the Libyan revolutions that took place over the course of the last two decades. Khalifa Hafter has recently occupied territory near the Algerian border and has amassed troops that are loyal to him and not the central government. Khalifa Hafter’s lack of government oversight in recent years may in future lead to a cooling of relations between the US and Libya, especially now that Khalifa Hafter has failed to appear for his scheduled court date in Alexandria Virginia. Despite this absence during the deposition, US courts have not yet delayed the trial.
