Comic books and video games can be controversial in Libya. Ahmad, 20, who asked not to use his real name, experienced it firsthand while attending the four-day Comic-Con convention — a multi-gaming and comic event that opened Nov. 2 in the capital city of Tripoli.

The crisis erupted on the second day of the convention, when the Special Deterrent Forces (SDF), a militia affiliated with the Ministry of Interior in the UN-backed Government of National Accord, stormed the convention and arrested dozens of youth. Blindfolded with trash bags and forced into the cars, Ahmad and his peers were treated as prisoners of war.

“The [SDF] were responding to a Facebook smear campaign against us. It was a huge misunderstanding,” Ahmad, who organized a FIFA video game tournament at the convention, told Al-Monitor. “They took us to one of their prisons. They wanted to catch the cosplayers [people who dress as characters], not the gamers. But they only caught one [cosplayer] and beat up the poor guy multiple times.”

The SDF issued a Facebook statement stating that cosplaying — the act of dressing up as characters from comic books, action series or cartoons — is a Western hobby that is prying Libya’s youth away from the morals of Islam. Most of those seized, including Ahmad, were released after they were forced to listen to a lecture from two sheikhs who explained that comic books and costumes involve devil worshiping. However, six of the main organizers are still in the SDF custody for damaging “public morality.”