Activist lawyer shot in head in Benghazi

BENGHAZI, Libya – Even in violent times in a violent city, the death of Salwa Bougaighis had the power to horrify. The prominent human rights lawyer, 47, was attacked by masked men with guns and knives who stormed the walled compound where she lived in the eastern city of Benghazi late Wednesday, according to officials and news reports. She died a short time later in a hospital of a gunshot wound to the head, and she also had been stabbed, according to Libya’s state news agency.

The attack came soon after the polls had closed in Libya’s first parliamentary election since 2012. She had documented that on Facebook as well, putting up a photo of herself at a polling station. Bougaighis’ husband, who was said to have been home at the time of the assault, was reported missing.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Bougaighis had often come under threat for her activism. She was outspokenly critical of armed Islamist groups that have come to the fore after the 2011 toppling and death of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi. Benghazi has been the center of a chaotic confrontation between renegade former general Khalifa Hifter and the Islamist militias on which he has declared war. The fighting has deepened what was already a free-for-all battle among heavily armed rival groups.