Libya court sentences Kadhafi son, eight aides to death

The court also sentenced to death by firing squad, on the same charges, seven other former Gaddafi era officials, including his intelligence chief and prime minister.

Among the charges he was convicted of were incitement to murder and rape.

A holder of a dubious PhD degree from the London School of Economics, Gaddafi was locked in Zintan, a mountainous region in western Libya.

The trial outcome drew swift criticism overseas, with Human Rights Watch and a prominent worldwide lawyer saying it was riddled with legal flaws and was carried out amid lawlessness that undermined the credibility of the Libyan judiciary. The National Transitional Council led an uprising that spun the country into civil war.

The militia holding Seif al-Islam is loyal to the internationally recognised government that fled to the remote east last August when a rival militia alliance seized the capital and set up its own administration. FILE – In this February 25, 2011, file photo, Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, son of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, speaks to the media at a press conference in a hotel in Tripoli, Libya.

Saif al-Islam was not present in court and gave evidence via video link. Another, Saadi, was extradited to Libya from Niger in March a year ago.

After his father’s ouster, a militia group from Zintan captured Seif al-Islam Gadhafi as he tried to escape the country disguised as a Bedouin in a caravan moving south through the desert.

October 28, 2011 – Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the worldwide Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor, confirms that the ICC is having “informal conversations” about the surrender of Saif al-Islam Gadhafi.

The Crown Office had previously commented on Senussi’s potential value to the new inquiry when he was extradited from Mauritania, on the west coast of Africa, to Libya in September 2012. In a brief interview with CNN’s Matthew Chance, he says his father and several of his sisters are safe in Tripoli.

Tuesday’s verdict convicted 32 defendants, sentencing nine of them to death and 23 to prison terms ranging from five years to life imprisonment. Four were acquitted and one was ordered confined to a psychiatric hospital.

Saif al-Islam had become deeply involved in politics during the final years of his father’s rule.

A Libyan court on Tuesday sentenced Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of late dictator Muammar Gaddafi, to death on charges related to killings during the 2011 uprising.