World Prisons
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Libya

Abu Salim prison

Closed 2011Low
Verified
Aging · 5mo ago
Sources last reviewed on

Data is aggregated from public sources and may be incomplete or out of date. Always verify with primary sources before acting on any figure. See data sources.

For families

How to send mail, money, and visit Abu Salim prison

Step-by-step guidance using the Libya system — addresses, money services, visit booking, what to bring on your first visit.

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Background

Abu Salim prison (Arabic: سجن أبو سليم, romanized: Sijn Abū Salīm) is a maximum security prison in Tripoli, Libya. The prison was notorious during the rule of Muammar Gaddafi for alleged mistreatment and human rights abuses, including a massacre in 1996 in which Human Rights Watch estimated that 1,270 prisoners were killed. In 2011, when the National Transitional Council invited investigators from CNN and other organizations, it found only what appeared to be animal bones at that site and announced further investigations.

Source: Wikipedia article lead, CC-BY-SA.

Capacity

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Current population

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Occupancy

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Year opened

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Closed 2011

Figures from official sources · verified 28 May 2026 · methodology

Facility profile

Operator

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Population held

Mixed/unknown

Opened

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Region

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Security level

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Death-row facility

No

Conditions

No conditions summary available yet.

Visiting

No visiting information available.

Mailing

No mailing information available.

Practical info

Contact the operator's website for inmate-specific procedures.

Known issues

No major issues documented in our database.

Contact & address

No public contact details available.

Conditions Risk Score

Derived signal — not a judgement. How it's calculated

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Insufficient data
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Related facilities

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Data completeness

16%

How many of our profile fields are populated. We surface this so families and researchers know the limits.

Sources

Cite this page

Under CC-BY-4.0. Include the URL and access date; the site is a living reference and entries can change.

APA
World Prisons. (2026). Abu Salim prison. Retrieved October 15, 2026, from https://worldprisons.com/prisons/abu-salim-prison
Chicago
"Abu Salim prison." World Prisons. Accessed October 15, 2026. https://worldprisons.com/prisons/abu-salim-prison.
BibTeX
@misc{worldprisons-abu-salim-prison,
  author = {{World Prisons}},
  title = {Abu Salim prison},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://worldprisons.com/prisons/abu-salim-prison},
  urldate = {2026-10-15}
}