Tripoli, 10 December:
The trial of the Qaddafi regime’s last prime minister, Al-Baghdadi Al-Mahmoudi, adjourned from 12 November, reopened in Tripoli today, Monday, only to be adjounded again until 14 January.
Mahmoudi has been charged with a number of crimes including reposnsibility for the deaths of Libyans, corruption, ordering a mass rape in Zuara during the revolution, and ordering a hospital manager to transfer dead bodies to buildings hit by NATO airstrikes to infer that they had been killed in the raid.
Accused alongside Mahmoudi were two others, Mabrouk Zahmoul and Amer Tarfas, who are charged with transferring funds to acquire logistic support for the regime.
Before the case was adjourned the defence, which previously argued that proceedings were flawed, handed over a list of witnesses it wants to question. Some are reportedly in Libya, some outside and some being sought by the Libyan authorities.
Also in court today in a separate case were former foreign minister Abdel-Ati al-Obeidi and former Secretary General of the General People’s Congress Mohammed Zwai. They are accused in connection with the $2.7 billion in compensation payments for families of those killed in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, charges they both deny.
The case, already adjourned, was also again adjouned, until 7 January. [/restrict]
