Libya yesterday honoured hundreds of fighters who helped topple Muammar Gaddafi’s forces, during a ceremony at Benghazi’s basketball stadium where the slain despot’s regime had publicly hanged opponents decades ago. “We remember that many were hanged right here. Today we have taken our revenge,” said Benghazi’s leading cleric sheikh Salem Jabar at the stadium, where fighters dressed in military fatigues joined by women and children shouted “Allahu Akbar”. “Let the world know that the men of Benghazi are courageous.” The stadium in central Benghazi reverberated with anti-Gaddafi slogans and revolutionary songs and chants as organisers reminded the gathering of the 1984 public hanging of Sadiq Hamed Shwehdi, one of the many Libyan youth opposition members who challenged Gaddafi’s rule in the 80s. The Internet video of a scared, handcuffed Shwehdi’s hanging at the stadium is still considered by human rights groups as an example of horrific crimes committed by Gaddafi’s regime during his 42-year-old rule. The video shows Shwehdi hanged in front of hundreds of cheering schoolchildren and his family members during the holy month of Ramadan. His execution was shown live on state television at that time. Yesterday, the stadium was packed with cheering fighters who had fought Gaddafi’s diehards since the eruption of the rebellion against him in the eastern Libyan city in February. “Benghazi is the spark of the revolution and it will also be the spark that will start the rebuilding of Libya,” chanted the fighters and civilians who sat next to each other in the stadium. “We wanted peaceful protests, but Allah wanted a war” chanted the crowd as the chief commanders of all the brigades who fought Gaddafi’s forces were honoured publicly with garlands and ceremonial mementoes.