TRIPOLI: New evidence implicating militias in executions after ousted Libyan dictator Moamer Qaddafi was captured and killed in Sirte in October 2011 raises fresh questions over his death, a watchdog said on Wednesday.

“The evidence suggests that opposition militias summarily executed at least 66 captured members of Kadhafi’s convoy in Sirte,” his hometown, said Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director at Human Rights Watch (HRW).

“It also looks as if they took Mutassim Qaddafi, who had been wounded, to [the port city of] Misrata and killed him there,” he said of Qaddafi’s son.

“Our findings call into question the assertion by Libyan authorities that Moamer Kadhafi was killed in crossfire, and not after his capture,” Bouckaert said of a HRW report documenting the executions.

The 50-page report, “Death of a Dictator: Bloody Vengeance in Sirte,” also details the final hours of Qaddafi’s life and the circumstances under which he was killed on the basis of witness testimony and mobile phone footage.

HRW said that its evidence suggests that Misrata-based militias captured and disarmed members of Qaddafi’s convoy and, after bringing them under control, subjected them to brutal beatings.

“They then executed at least 66 captured members of the convoy at the nearby Mahari Hotel,” the report said.

That finding matches reports by an Agence France-Presse correspondent who visited Sirte in October and documented the discovery of between 65 and 70 rotting bodies on the lawn of al-Mahari Hotel, many with a bullet in the head.

HRW said that it collected mobile phone video clips taken by anti-Qaddafi fighters that show a large group of captured convoy members being cursed and abused. It also used hospital morgue photos “to establish that at least 17 of the detainees visible in the phone video were later executed at the Mahari Hotel.”

To document what happened on October 20, 2011, HRW said that it had interviewed officers in opposition militias who were at the scene and surviving members of the Qaddafi convoy in hospital, in custody or at home.

The watchdog stressed that evidence regarding the deaths of Moamer and Mutassim Qaddafi also calls into question the official account given by the Libyan authorities, which said that the two “died during fierce crossfire.”

Video footage shows that the dictator was captured alive but bleeding heavily from a head wound. In the footage, he is severely beaten by rebels and appears to be stabbed with a bayonet in his buttocks.

On the basis of separate footage, the watchdog said Mutassim was caught alive and taken to Misrata where he is seen smoking and having a “hostile conversation” with his captors.

HRW said that it presented its findings to transitional officials immediately after the killings and has repeatedly urged the new authorities to carry out a full investigation into these killings which amount to a war crime.

It added that it had not seen “any evidence” of any inquiry under way.

“In case after case we investigated, the individuals had been videotaped alive by the opposition fighters who held them, and then found dead hours later,” Bouckaert said.

“One of Libya’s greatest challenges is to bring its well-armed militias under control and end their abuses,” Bouckaert said. “A good first step would be to investigate the mass executions of October 20, 2011, the most serious abuse by opposition forces documented so far.”