By Hadi Fornaji.
Tripoli, 9 April 2013:
Egypt’s Attorney General decided today, Tuesday, to move Ahmed Qaddaf Al-Dam to a prison cell and . . .[restrict]hold him there for the next four days for interrogation into whether he tried to murder a police officer when he was arrested at his home in Cairo on 19 March.
It was reported at the time that when the police arrived to arrest him following Libya’s request for his extradition, Qaddaf Al-Dam started shooting. He has been charged with attempted murder and possession of firearms without a license and resisting arrest.
Until now, he has been held on bail under house arrest. Following his arrest, the Attorney-General decided to detain him for 30 days at his home in Cairo’s fashionable Zamalek district, Cairo, pending completion of extradition proceedings.
No reason has been given why the Attorney-General has changed his mind.
Last Wednesday, however, an Egyptian court blocked the extradition, saying that he had to remain in Egypt to face charges there.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Ali Zeidan announced that the Libyan and Egyptian governments had submitted an appeal against the court ruling.
It had resulted in protests outside the Egyptian embassy in Tripoli by Libyans and Egyptians, demanding he be handed over to Libyan justice.
Human Rights Watch, however, has urged the Egypt authorities not to do so unless Libya can provide guarantees “that it has ended the risk of torture or ill-treatment in detention”.
Qaddaf Al-Dam’s lawyer is meanwhile trying to short-circuit the whole process by claiming that his client has Egyptian nationality because he was born to Egyptian parents. [/restrict]
