By Libya Herald staff.
Tunis, 12 February 2015:
Former General National Congress member Sharif Al-Wafi, who is one of the political delegates to . . .[restrict]the current UN-brokered dialogue talks, is planning to refer the president of the continuing GNC, Nuri Abu Sahmain, to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, accusing him and six other Congress members of responsibility for war crimes in Libya.
The others include second deputy Congress president Saleh Makhzoum as well as Tarhouna member Ahmed Assaadi and Emhemed Erwaimi from Emsalata.
“We have been working with legal advisers in London and elsewhere preparing a file on Abu Sahmain and Makhzoum to submit to the ICC”, he told the Libya Herald.
“They made the decision for war in Libya” he said, by authorising Libya Dawn forces to act. “They had no right to do it.”
As a result, he insisted, responsibility for the chaos and so much bloodshed lay with them. “They made the decisions to appoint an illegal government, to appoint [Omar] Al-Hassi [as prime minister], to destroy life in Libya. They must go to the Criminal Court.”
A report would be ready and submitted to the ICC prosecutor dealing with Libya, Fatou Bensouda, within three weeks, he said today. Libya Dawn military leaders, however, would not figure in the dossier. “We’re concentrating on the heads of Congress,” Wafi stated.
Under UN Resolution 1970 of 26 February 2011 which referred Libya to the ICC, the court is authorised to hold accountable anyone deemed responsible for attacks by forces under their control against civilians in Libya.
Abu Sahmain still insists that as president of Congress he is Commander-in-Chief of Libya’s armed forces of which he made Libya Dawn a part. [/restrict]
