TRIPOLI: Libya will not send Seif Al-Islam Qaddafi, the most prominent son of the country's former leader, to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, but will put him on trial in his own country, Justice Minister Ali Ashour said on Sunday.Seif Al-Islam remains in a secret prison in the custody of the Zintan rebels who caught him last year and will be tried in Libya by Libyan judges on charges of financial corruption, murder and rape, Ashour told Reuters.
Despite the ICC's demands that he be sent to The Hague for trial, "there is no intention to hand him (Seif Al-Islam) over to the ICC, and Libyan law is the right system to be used to try Saif Qaddafi," Ashour said.
| Seif, buddy, you'd better open a bigger bag of Kruegerrands... |
Pressure is mounting on Libya to hand Qaddafi's son to the ICC as human rights organizations say the country is unable to give him a fair trial.
| Then again, the ICC can't give anyone a fair trial if by fair you include a timeline that proceeds faster than geologic... |
Ashour said his ministry had prepared a prison for Seif Al-Islam and negotiations were under way with the Zintan rebels to transfer him to Tripoli.
The ICC says it has jurisdiction over the case because it issued warrants last year for the arrest of Muammar Qaddafi, Seif Al-Islam and intelligence chief Abdullah Al-Senussi, who was arrested last month in Mauritania. A UN Security Council Resolution obliges Libya to cooperate with the court, the ICC says, and Tripoli's failure to hand over Seif Al-Islam could result in it being reported to the Council.
| Which would then do what? I think this is what the ICC really fears, that it would be show to be toothless. |
On Wednesday, the ICC ordered Tripoli to "comply with its obligations to enforce the warrant of arrest" and surrender Seif Al-Islam to the court's custody without delay. The ICC had earlier given Libya until Jan. 10 to say whether and when it would surrender Seif Al-Islam and to provide information about his health, then extended the deadline to February.
Ashour declined on Sunday to give details of how Seif Al-Islam would be tried or of preparations for his trial, saying only that the judicial committee responsible for the trial had not yet been created.
| "Carla del Ponte to the yellow courtesy phone, Ms. del Ponte..." |