Gadhafi’s Son Sentenced To Death In Libya

May 31, 2013 – The ICC rejects Libya’s bid to try Saif al-Islam Gadhafi and asks the nation to hand him over.

Son of slain Libyan leader sentenced in absentia to die by firing squad along with other members of former regime.

Previous head of intelligence of Gaddafi’s organization, Abdullah al-Senussi, is also facing death penalty along with Al-Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi.

June 8, 2012 – A delegation of four from the worldwide Criminal Court (ICC) is detained in Libya for attempting to get documents to Saif al-Islam Gadhafi.

US-based Human Rights Watch said the trial was “undermined by serious due process violations”, and called on the Supreme Court to independently review the verdict.

Colonel Gaddafi was eventually captured and killed by rebel fighters in his hometown of Sirte in October 2011.

He has been in custody in the western city of Zintan since his capture in late 2011 after the ouster and killing of his father.

Seif al-Islam, the strongman’s one-time heir apparent who is also wanted by the global Criminal Court, was tried in his absence because he is held by militia opposed to the Tripoli authorities.

During the trial, Saif al-Islam was accused of recruiting mercenaries who were given Libyan nationality, planning and carrying out attacks on civilian targets from the air, forming armed groups and shooting into crowds of demonstrators.

Since the west’s “coalition of the willing” intervention in Libya that helped remove Gaddafi from power three years ago, Libya has descended into chaos. Stork says although the victims of the serious crimes which were committed during the 2011 uprising certainly deserve justice this can nevertheless only be gained via fair and transparent proceedings.

However, according to The Independent, human rights agencies and individual activists have raised questions on the legitimacy of Libyan judicial systems, and our concerned with the fairness of the trial, which had opened in Tripoli a year ago.

“Libyans in general have so many problems right now that many were not even following the trial”, he said. Instead, the former jet-setting son who counted British financiers and Russian oligarchs among his friends, only appeared by videotape before the Tripoli court. The group, which is allied to the government in Tobruk that has the support of the global community, does not recognize the regime in Tripoli.

The militia holding Al-Islam is loyal to the internationally recognised government which fled to the remote east last August when a rival militia alliance seized the capital and set up its own administration. In recent weeks, rallies in some towns have featured banners bearing Saif al-Islam’s face.