Tripoli: March 20: Deputy Prime Minister Mustafa Abushagur Al-Ghaith has said that he has been given a “positive” answer by Mauritanian . . .[restrict]President President Ould Abdel Aziz to Libya’s to hand over of Abdullah Senussi.
Speaking in the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott before returning to Tripoli, he spoke of Abdel Aziz’s “courageous position”, adding that the president has said he “understood” Libya’s position and that he would “not forget the Libyan people”.
Abushagur did not elaborate. He had flown to Nouakchott on Monday evening to press for Senussi’s extradition as well as to identify him.
It is expected that details will be provided at tomorrow’s press conference given by Libyan government spokesman Nasser Al-Mana.
Senussi, Qaddafi’s intelligence chief, was arrested at Nouakchott airport early on Saturday morning while in transit between Casablanca and Mali. The Mauritanian authorities said he was travelling on a fake Malian passport.
France is also pressing Mauritanian to hand him over as is the International Criminal Court in The Hague which in June last year issued a warrant for his arrest for crimes against humanity.
It has been reported that Abdullah Senussi, 62, suffered a heart attack following his arrest and was taken under strong guard to a hospital in the suburb of Tevragh-Zeina. There has been no confirmation of this.
Meanwhile it has also been reported in the Algerian press today that the authorities there rejected a request by Senussi to enter the country shortly before his arrest in Mauritania. A government source was quoted as saying that Algeria had “monitored the movements of Senussi in Mali” before his arrest in Mauritania.
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