The NGO Mediterranea Saving Humans filed a complaint in Italian courts against the Tripoli government in Libya, accusing it of involvement in human trafficking, presenting photos and videos from two incidents that took place last August.

“This time there are videos and photographic evidence that cannot be concealed: the Libyan traffickers who violently threw ten young refugees into the open sea, right in front of the rescue boat, after holding them in detention camps, belong to Tripoli’s official military apparatus. We always knew this, but now we have filmed them, photographed them, and identified their identities. We know who they are,” the NGO said in a statement.

The first photos come from an incident on August 18 and show men on Libyan patrol boats wearing hoods and uniforms, which, according to the NGO, bear the insignia of the 80th Special Operations Battalion of the 111th Brigade – a militia under the leadership of Libya’s Deputy Defense Minister, Abdul Salam Al-Zoubi.

Two days later, a video recorded Iraqis of Kurdish origin in the water, “after they were pushed into the sea, according to witnesses on the NGO’s boat. As the boat from which they fell into the sea moves away, it is illuminated by the rescuers’ flashlights, showing the same irregular coloration between the black sides and the white hull as the boat we saw on the 18th,” Mediterranea Saving Humans reports.

According to the same complaint, the Kurds who were rescued alive told NGO members that a few hours earlier they had been gathered in a detention center in Libya, while they claimed that four other people, fearing a trap, refused to go with them and were killed.

The photos, videos, and a detailed record of the events have been sent by the NGO to the Trapani prosecutor’s office in Sicily and to the International Criminal Court.

As noted by The Guardian, Libyan militias patrol the Mediterranean following the Tripoli government’s agreement with Italy in February 2017, which gave it the authority to forcibly return migrants intercepted in the North African country’s waters.

The agreement, which included the provision of funds and equipment from Italy, was arranged by Marco Minniti, former Minister of the Interior of the center-left Democratic Party, in an effort to curb the flow of migrants.

On September 4, Tripoli government Deputy Defense Minister Al-Zoubi met with Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, who in an official statement praised the “efficient cooperation” of Italy with the Libyan government.

Luca Casarino, co-founder of Mediterranea, told the British newspaper that the videos, photos, and testimonies of the rescued “prove that the real beneficiaries of Italian funds are the human traffickers.”