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Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam sentenced to death by court in Libya Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam sentenced to death by court in Libya
(35 minutes later)
A court in the Libyan capital has sentenced Muammar Gaddafi’s most prominent son, Saif al-Islam, to death in absentia for suppressing peaceful protests during the country’s 2011 revolution that ended his father’s rule. Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of Libya’s former dictator, Muammar Gaddafi, has been sentenced to death by a court in Tripoli.
The Tripoli court also handed down a death sentence by firing squad to Gaddafi’s former spy chief, Abdullah al-Senussi, and his former prime minister, Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi. Saif, once seen as his father’s heir apparent, was condemned to death along with eight other figures from the former dictatorship, including the former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi and Gaddafi’s last prime minister, Al-Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi.
Libya has slid into chaos since the 2011 overthrow and killing of Muammar Gaddafi. It is now bitterly divided between an elected parliament and government cornered in the country’s east, with little power on the ground, and an Islamist militia-backed government in the west that has seized Tripoli. The trial, which opened in Tripoli in April last year, has been mired in controversy after human rights groups and the international criminal court questioned its standards.
Since 2011 Saif Gaddafi has been held by a militia in Zintan region, allied with Libya’s internationally recognised government in Tobruk, that opposes the regime in Tripoli. There is uncertainty about whether the sentence will be carried out, as Saif is being held by a militia in the mountain town of Zintan that is opposed to Libya Dawn, the militia coalition in control of Tripoli.
Saif Gaddafi is also wanted by the International criminal court in The Hague on charges of crimes against humanity. Saif has been held in Zintan since he was caught trying to flee Libya in the aftermath of the 2011 revolution. The militia has refused to hand him over to Tripoli.
More details soon … The international criminal court has refused permission for Libya to try Saif, who has been indicted by the Hague, along with Senussi, for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Judges in the Hague have given permission for Senussi to be tried.
There are unlikely to be immediate executions after Sadiq al-Sur, head of the investigation department of the attorney general, said lawyers could appeal against the sentences.
In June last year, militias controlling the prison where Saif is being held briefly arrested a United Nations monitor, accusing him of black magic. He was later released.
Civil war engulfed the country last July, withLibya Dawn militias seizing the capital and the internationally recognised government fleeing to eastern Libya and losing control of the trial process.