By Ahmed Elumami.
Tripoli, 6 March 2014:
Saadi Qaddafi, extradited to Libya from Niger this morning, will face numerous charges, the . . .[restrict]General Attorney’s office has said.
These will include a number of charges related to the theft of public money, incitement to murder during the 17 February revolution, and bringing mercenaries from Sub-Saharan African countries to fight alongside Qaddafi’s troops.
Saadi was also involved in many abuses relating to the suppression of public freedom before the revolution, head of the investigation department of the General Attorney’s office, Sadiq Al-Sour, told the Libya Herald.
“Saadi is facing a separate murder charge of killing Al-Ittihad football player and coach in Tripoli, Bashir Al-Rayani,” he said. Rayani was tortured and killed after apparently making some comments regarding Saadi’s lack of talent as a footballer to a group of acquaintances.
The day of his murder was, coincidentally, 6 March 2006. When the news broke of Saadi’s extradition, Al-Ittihad decided to mark this day and commemorate Rayani’s death. This evening, police vehicles and cars flying the club’s colours cold be seen near the Al-Ittihad club in Tripoli’s Hay Demasque district.
Another crime Saadi would be held accountable for was from 1996, when he allegedly ordered his personal guards to fire live rounds into Al-Ahly team supporters after they beat Saadi’s Al-Ittihad team, Sour said. The incident left a number of people dead, with further supporters arrested and tortured after the match for chanting anti-Saadi and anti-Qaddafi slogans.
Saadi’s hatred of Al-Ahly eventually led to him ordering that the football club be demolished and turned into a rubbish dump.
Sour said that Saadi had been implicated in the setting up of pro-Qaddafi sleeper cells. Some members of such organisations who had been arrested, he said, had confessed that Saadi was behind the groups and, indeed, much of the current security crisis in Libya.
Initial investigations had already been launched, Sour said. [/restrict]
