TRIPOLI, June 23, 2026 (AFP) - A Libyan court handed a seven-year jail term to the ex-director of a notorious prison who is wanted by an international tribunal for the abuse of inmates, prosecutors said.

It convicted Osama Almasri Najim of torture and cruel and degrading treatment against detainees, the national prosecutors' office said in a statement.

It sentenced him to seven years and four months, said the statement, issued late Sunday.

Najim was formerly head of Tripoli's judicial police and in charge of Mitiga jail near the city's airport.

He is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. He has been detained in Libya since last November.

He was at the centre of a scandal in Italy last year when he was arrested there but then released and returned to Libya aboard a plane chartered by the Italian government.