Tripoli, 14 June:
NATO has added its voice to calls for Libya to release Melinda Taylor and three other representatives currently being . . .[restrict]detained in Zintan.
The call was made today by NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen from Australia, the home of Melinda Taylor, the leader of the ICC delegation. “I strongly regret that certain groups in Libya have arrested or withheld representatives of the International Criminal Court”, he said. I would urge them to release these individuals as soon as possible.”
Taylor was arrested in Zintan last Thursday after she was allegedly found in possession of a number of “dangerous” documents, some of which supposedly came from Saif’s former right-hand man, Mohammed Ismail, who is wanted by the Libyan government but remains at large.
Regardless of the veracity of the charges, both Taylor and her colleagues have diplomatic immunity as representatives of the ICC, which is supposed to shield them from arrest or prosecution.
In addition to Fogh Rasmussen, both ICC President Sang-Hyun Song and Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard have called for the delegates’ release.
[/restrict]
