US judge orders Libya’s Haftar to compensate families of victims of Tripoli campaign

 A US judge Friday ordered the military chief of eastern Libya, Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, to compensate Libyan plaintiffs who allege he ordered the torture and extrajudicial killings of their family members.

The federal judge in the state of Virginia, where Haftar lived before returning to Libya, ruled that he had not cooperated with the court and that by "default" was ordered to pay damages to the families.

Haftar, a dual US-Libyan citizen whose name is spelled "Hifter" in American legal documents, can still appeal the decision, and future hearings will need to be held to determine the level of compensation.