By Nigel Ash
Tripoli, 16 June 2013:
The International Criminal Court has postponed its demand that Libya hand over Qaddafi’s security chief and . . .[restrict]brother-in-law, Abdullah Al-Senussi for trial in the Hague on human rights charges.
The ICC judges acted after Libya filed a further challenge to the court’s decision that Senussi was not capable of receiving a fair trial here, and that the Libyan authorities had not been able to mount a proper investigation into the allegations against him.
However just over fortnight ago, the ICC rejected a similar appeal from Libya over the court’s insistence that Qaddafi’s son, Saif Al-Islam be surrendered to its jurisdiction.
As one lawyer commented this morning: “If the court does not think Saif’s trial is being properly handled by the Libyan authorities, it is hard to see how they are going to take a different view over the state of the proceedings against Abdullah Al-Senussi.”
Justice Minister, Salah Bashir Al-Marghani is currently appealing the ICC’s refusal to allow the Saif trial to go ahead in Libya.
Senussi, who was extradited from Mauritania last September ,following a rumoured payment of $200 million, has been held ever since in Hadba Correction Facility in Tripoli. This April Human Rights Watch reported that he had claimed that he had still not been able to see a lawyer.
In February, the ICC judges issued their initial ruling that Senussi be handed over. The Libyan prosecutor-general’s office at the time described the demand as “standard procedure”. Libya appealed the decision, which appeal was rejected last month and the court immediately repeated its demand for the former security chief. [/restrict]
