Judge shot dead outside court in Libya

Assailants killed Mohammed Houidi on Sunday morning as he came out of a court in the city.

“A car just stopped in front and gunmen fired at him,” Mansour Al Hasadi, a member of Libya’s national assembly from Derna, told Reuters. “He died immediately.”

Hasadi said courts in the city had only recently properly resumed work following disruption due to the 2011 war that ousted Muammar Gaddafi. As with elsewhere in the North African country, state security forces and courts there remain weak.

A relative of Houidi confirmed what Hasadi said and added: “The courts only started working again and this may have upset people who have openly been calling for Islamic law to be implemented in Derna.”

Residents say there have been several demonstrations, led by members of some Islamist groups, calling for Shariah law in recent months.

Derna, a coastal city overlooking the Mediterranean, is known across the region as a major recruitment centre for fighters who joined the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria.