ZINTAN, Libya — Moammar Gadhafi’s son and one-time heir apparent will be tried at home and will not be handed over to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, the Libyan information minister said Sunday.
Mahmoud Shammam said Libya’s National Transitional Council will discuss its decision with the ICC’s chief prosecutor when he visits Libya on Monday. Seif al-Islam Gadhafi is wanted by the ICC on charges of crimes against humanity.
But Shammam told The Associated Press on Sunday that it would only be fair for Libyans to try Seif al-Islam at home where he “committed crimes against Libyan people.”
Earlier, the revolutionary fighters who captured Seif al-Islam said they wanted to hold him in until a court system is established in Libya. They demanded that he be tried inside the country.
Seif al-Islam was seized in Libya’s southern desert on Saturday by fighters from the western mountain town of Zintan, the base of former rebels who played a key role in seizing the capital Tripoli in August and toppling Gadhafi’s regime. He was put into a plane and flown back to Zintan, 85 miles southwest of Tripoli, where he remains in a secret location.
The head of Zintan’s military council, Col. Mohammed al-Khabash, said his fighters have no intention of turning Seif al-Islam over to the National Transitional Council in Tripoli, the interim government that took power after Gadhafi’s ouster.
“Seif al-Islam is like any other local prisoner and we will keep him in Zintan until a court system is established and he must be tried in Libya,” al-Khabash told the Associated Press.
Gadhafi’s son, once being groomed to take over from his father who ruled Libya for 42 years, is wanted by the ICC for his role in violently suppressing the uprising against the regime that began in February.
NTC Justice Minister Mohammed al-Alagi claimed Saturday after Seif al-Islam was captured that he would be transported to Tripoli soon — an indication that he was expected to be handed over to NTC custody.
ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo told the AP Saturday that he will travel to Libya next week for talks with the NTC on where the trial will take place. Ocampo said that while national governments have the first right to try their own citizens for war crimes, his primary goal was to ensure Seif al-Islam has a fair trial.
The statement by the Zintan fighters raises new questions about how firm the NTC’s authority is over the entire country and whether powerful regional factions with bands of armed fighters are able to act autonomously, even on issues of the highest national interest.
Gadhafi himself and another one of his sons, Muatassim, were captured alive last month by another strong regional group, the Misrata fighters, who also took part in the march on Tripoli that toppled the regime. By the end of the day they were seized on, they both ended up dead while still in the hands of Misrata fighters in circumstances that have yet to be explained. The Misrata fighters held onto their corpses and displayed them as trophies for days in a commercial refrigerator in their city, where people lined up to view the decomposing bodies.
Human Rights Watch has called for Seif al-Islam to be promptly turned over to the International Criminal Court in a statement, citing the apparent killings in custody of his father and brother, Muatassim, on Oct. 20 as “particular cause for concern.”
