UN human rights experts call on Malta to end 'unjustified' El Hiblu 3 case

Two United Nations human rights experts have called on Malta to drop criminal proceedings against three young men facing controversial terrorism charges.

In a statement published on the UN website, they urged Malta to end the “unjustified prosecution” of Amara Kromah, Abdalla Bari and Abdul Kader, also known as the “El Hiblu 3”, who stand accused of terrorism and hijacking.

The three were among 100 migrants rescued by the El Hiblu 1 merchant shipping vessel in 2019. They are alleged to have hijacked the vessel and ordered its captain to turn away from Libya and sail towards Malta.

The case has proved highly controversial, however; their supporters – an international coalition of human rights advocates, including President Emeritus Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca – say they only acted as interpreters trying to calm a volatile situation onboard.

UN special rapporteurs Ben Saul and Gehad Madi said the trio “did not engage in any violence or threats but were arrested upon disembarkation in Malta and charged with extremely serious offences... with some offences carrying life imprisonment”.

Special rapporteurs are independent human rights experts appointed by the Human Rights Council.

“We condemn these unjustified charges. We are also concerned that Maltese law criminalises as terrorism conduct that is not genuinely terrorist under international law”, the pair said.

The UN stressed that despite two of the three to face charges being minors at the time of their arrest – Kromah, Bari and Kader were just 16, 15 and 19 years old, respectively – they were detained in a high-security prison wing, interrogated without legal guardians and detained for eight months before being granted bail.

The statement also pointed to “procedural irregularities” during the investigation.

Saul and Madi said Malta “Malta does not appear to have respected its international obligations to consider the best interests of the child in all decisions affecting them, to detain children only as a last resort and separate them from adults, to use juvenile, not adult, justice procedures and to guarantee the right to a fair trial”.

They also expressed concerns that the EU’s naval operation had coordinated with the El Hiblu 1 and Libyan authorities to facilitate the rescued migrants’ forcible return to a country where they could face persecution.

“There is broad international agreement that Libya cannot be regarded as a ‘place of safety’ where refugees and migrants rescued at sea can be disembarked under the international law of the sea. The forcible return of migrants to Libya would violate the core legal obligation of non-refoulement,” the experts said.

They echoed the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights’ call for a “common, human rights-based response” to migration originating from Libya.

On Friday, a court of appeal threw out a request by Bari and Kromaha to drop the charges against them, instead asking the Attorney General to amend a "defect" in the accusation that will eventually be presented to a trial by jury.

Speaking to Times of Malta last year, Kromah said his time in Malta while awaiting a decision on the case felt like “living in an open prison”.

Kader is currently fighting his extradition from the UK, where he absconded in August 2023.

In 2021, questions were raised over the veracity of statements provided by the crew of the El Hiblu 1, after the vessel was caught smuggling almost €76 million worth of cocaine in 2021 while operating under a different name.