Tripoli, 1 August:
Saif Al-Islam Qaddafi has insisted that he be tried at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. He claims he . . .[restrict]could never be given a fair trial in Libya. He also alleges that witnesses will be tortured to provide evidence.
In documents submitted to the International Criminal Court (ICC), the 40-year-old’s lawyers quoted him as saying: “There will certainly be no justice in the case if the prosecution is based on evidence extracted from torture or other inadmissible evidence, or persons who are too scared to say the truth… I am not afraid to die but if you execute me after such a trial you should just call it murder and be done with it.”
Saif has been indicted by the ICC for crimes against humanity, allegedly committed during the overthrow of the old regime, but the Libyan government refuses to hand him over to ICC based in The Netherlands, arguing that he should be tried in his own country. In any event, the government still does not have possession of him. He is still being held by the Zintanis.
Last month, an ICC defence lawyer and three other members of staff were detained while visiting him in Zintan. Libyan officials accused Melinda Taylor, who led the delegation, of passing spying devices to Saif al-Islam. She and her group were eventually released after 26 days.
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