Libya's Brothers from Hell

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 7 January 2021

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Amid the anarchy of post-Revolution Libya, seven brothers from an obscure background gradually took over their home town near Tripoli. They're accused of murdering entire families to instill fear and to build power and wealth. They created their own militia which threw in its lot, at different times, with various forces in Libya's ongoing conflict. And they grew rich by levying taxes on the human and fuel traffickers crossing their territory. Now, the full horror of their reign of terror is being exposed: since they were driven out in June, more and more mass graves are being discovered. The Libyan authorities - and the International Criminal Court - are investigating what happened. But the four surviving Kani brothers have fled. Will they ever face justice? And what does their story tell us about why the 2011 overthrow of Colonel Gaddafi brought not democracy, but chaos, to Libya? Tim Whewell reports.

Editor: Bridget Harney

(Image: A defaced mural depicting Mohsen al-Kani in the town of Tarhuna. Credit: Mahmud Turkia/AFP via Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	I mean I really never expected the can't
0:05.0	family would rise so far.
0:07.0	Those brothers, those seven brothers,
0:10.0	were really very poor, ignorant to we're rough people without any manners.
0:16.0	The social status, it was zero.
0:19.0	About 30 years ago, seven brothers grew up in a small Libyan town.
0:24.3	You have to imagine basically a family that was poor.
0:28.6	They were not very educated.
0:30.6	Only Muhammad, who later emerged as the brain behind the operation was educated.
0:37.0	The eldest Abdullah was just taking care of sheep. He was just a shepherd effectively.
0:42.0	Seven brothers who no one took care of sheep, he was just a shepherd effectively.
0:43.0	Seven brothers who no one took seriously.
0:46.0	But when chaos engulfed their country, they waded through blood
0:50.0	to laud it over their community. I'm Tim Hewell and for assignment here on the BBC
0:55.8	World Service this is the horrific story of the Carney brothers with some material you may
1:01.6	find distressing.
1:03.0	Abdul Qathl.
1:05.0	Abdul Qathal.
1:06.0	Abdul Qadhahim was the number one killer,
1:08.0	after him Mohsen, then Muhammad. They say a whole family got killed just because of one person.
1:18.0	Might be their brother or their son who does something that upsets this militia, they just go and assassinate the whole family.
1:27.2	And they get buried.
	...

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