Libya said Wednesday it had destroyed the last prison in the country and freed 305 prisoners held there.
Libya's official news agency JANA said the move was in compliance with a decision to scrap prisons nationwide and that this last prison was destroyed on the occasion of the 18th anniversary of the proclamation of "people's power" changing the name of Libya's Republic to Libyan Jamahiriya.In 1988 Libya said it had been closing down jails and the country's television since then has periodically shown Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi helping bring down a prison's wall.
JANA did not say whether political prisoners, whose number is put at between 400 and 500 by a 1995 U.S. State Department report, were also freed.
Nor did it say where people sentenced by courts would be detained in future.