by WorldTribune Staff, June 15, 2017
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is calling for the “immediate” arrest of Saif al-Islam Gadhafi after he was granted amnesty by one of Libya’s two competing governments.
The son of late leader Col. Moammar Gadhafi, Saif al-Islam Gadhafi was sentenced to death in absentia by a Tripoli court in July 2015 for alleged crimes against humanity committed during the rebellion that ousted his father in 2011.
The younger Gadhafi was captured by militia in November 2011 as he tried to flee south to Niger.
Saif al-Islam Gadhafi was freed from jail on June 9 by the Abu Bakr al-Siddiq Battalion militia in the western town of Zintan. He has not been seen in public since.
A source told the BBC he was in the Tobruk area of eastern Libya.
The UN-backed Government of National Accord in Tripoli has condemned the release.
Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, of the Hague-based ICC, said her office was still trying to verify the release and called on Libya and other states to arrest and surrender him.
“Libya is obliged to immediately arrest and surrender Gadhafi to the ICC, regardless of any purported amnesty law in Libya,” Bensouda said in a statement.
The Abu Bakr al-Siddiq Battalion said it was acting on a request from the “interim government” based in the east of the country, according to the BBC’s report.
The BBC noted that Saif al-Islam Gadhafi “was known for playing a key role in building relations with the West after 2000.”
After the 2011 uprising, however, “he found himself accused of incitement to violence and murdering protesters.”
He was sentenced to death by firing squad following a trial in July 2015 involving 30 of Moammar Gadhafi’s close associates.
Letters to the Editor __ Subscribe to Geostrategy-Direct __ Support Free Press Foundation
ICC calls for immediate arrest of Gadhafi’s son added by World Tribune on
View all posts by World Tribune →