Libya Denies Punishing Rally Boycotts with Executions

The Libyan government on Tuesday denied accusations that it had executed detainees as punishment for their families' failure to join a rally in support of veteran leader Moammar Gadhafi.

"This report is baseless and no newspaper or (other) news agency reported anything of the kind," a statement from the government said, accusing Agence France Presse of "putting its credibility at stake."

"There has been no resort to violence against the population and a million people took part in the rally" in Tripoli's Green Square on Friday, the statement said.

A man told AFP in the rebel bastion of Benghazi that his nephew had been killed after several months in custody and his body dumped outside the family's Tripoli home on Saturday as punishment for their refusal to join the pro-Gadhafi demonstration.