By Reem Tombokti.
Tripoli, 1 August 2013:
The Misrata Court of Appeal found a senior Qaddafi-era figure, Ahmed Ibrahim, guilty of murder yesterday and sentenced him and others found guilty in the case to death.
Ibrahim, once Qaddaifi’s Minister of Education, and said to be related to the dictator, was accused along with nine others of murdering members of the Al-Safrooni family in Sirte before the town was liberated. He was also charged with incitement to murder, misleading the public and terrorizing civilians in the city.
Also found guilty and sentenced to death for involvement in the kiIlings were Walid Abdel-Qader Denon, Saadi Mabrouk Al-Nail, Muftah Amr Waheda, Mohamad Salem Waheda and Mohamad Al-Fituri Waheda. The later four, who are still at large, were sentenced in absentia according to Libyan News Agency (LANA).
In the case of Ahmed Ibrahim and Walid Abdul-Qader, these are the first death sentences to be handed down by the new post-Qaddafi judiciary system in a court where the defendants were present. In June, the Misrata court sentenced three men to death for the killing in 2011 of two people in a brawl at Sirte’s Ibn Sina Hospital.
It will be interesting to see what the government, GNC and public reaction will be and whether the sentences will be commuted to life sentences.
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