By Libya Herald reporter.
Tripoli 13 September 2015:
A Tripoli court meeting at Hadba Prison has again adjourned proceedings in the case of . . .[restrict]Saadi Qaddafi, standing trial on charges of ordering the murder in March 2006 of Ittihad Tripoli football team coach Bashir Al-Rayani. He denies the accusation.
Today’s adjournment came at the request of the defence team which asked for more time to study the case. Proceedings will reconvene on 1 November.
Today’s session was unexpected. It had been scheduled for tomorrow and there were no reporters at the court.
Saadi, who is separately charged with a number of other offences including corruption, incitement to murder during the 17 February revolution and bringing mercenaries from Sub-Saharan African countries to fight alongside Qaddafi’s troops, was recently reported to have been tortured at the prison. Last month, video footage emerged of him being beaten by prison staff.
Various international human right bodies, including Human Rights Watch, issued condemnations and the public prosecutor in Tripoli vowed to investigate the incident. However, the prison is under the control of one the most powerful figures in the capital at present, former deputy defence minister Khaled Sherif; he is also a former commander of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group in Afghanistan.
So far the only consequence of the incident has been the subsequent appearance of Saadi in another video from the prison claiming he is being well treated. [/restrict]
