Arrest

Bengahzi: The arrest of Saif al Islam in Uberi in southern Libya was greeted in with jubilation in . . .[restrict]this city where the Libyan revolution started nine months ago. Cars basted away on their horns, people waved flags in the streets and out of windows and the noise machine gun fire was incessant.The speed at which the news spread was amazing. The Arab News reporter and driver were in the offices of the WFP in downtown Benghazi talking to a member of staff who was monitoring the news on Libya Today, a local Arabic-language news website. Suddenly up came the announcement of the arrest by members of the brigade from Zintan in the Nafusa mountains. We checked other Libyan websites. They were reporting the same story. Then, within what seemed less than a minute hundreds of cars in the street outside started blasting their horns. Guns were being fired all over the place. It was amazing that the news spread so fast was given that the text messaging on the mobile phone network since February. The news was spread by phone. It seemed that everyone was trying to tell everyone else, so much so that almost immediately the network became overloaded. It was impossible to call anyone.

The city went‘ literally ballistic. The gunfire was deafening. Out in the streets, cars drove past with their occupants holding handguns out the windows and shooting into the air. An open truck with a rear-mounted machine gun sped past, with one militiaman waving flags while another fired the machine gun into the air.

Given earlier reports of Saif’s arrest that turned out to be untrue, some Libyans at first refused to belief the news, even after it was reported that Justice Minister Mohamed Alagy had confirmed it. “I’ll believe it only when I see the pictures,” said Abdurrahman Fawzi, a local businessman.

The evidence soon came with photos shown on TV of him holding up three bandaged fingers. “He’s had his fingers cut off”, said, Usama Shaikhi, a IT technician at Benghazi University. “Libyans demanded that his fingers be cut off ,” he explained, because Saif used to repeatedly stab his fingers in the air when speaking out against the revolution.

“At least he’s not dead,” said Awed Abeida, a university student, referring to the killing of his father and brother Mutassim after they were captured in Sirte by forces from Misrata on Oct. 20. “We need him alive to tells us the secrets of what he and his father did.”

For the rest of the day, people in Benghazi crowded around TV in cafes and hotels for the latest news.

The brigade that arrested Saif say they plan to hold him in Zintan until there is a proper government in power that can take responsibility for him. A new government is due to be unveiled today, Sunday, by Libya’s Prime Minister Abdurrahim Al-Kib.

The arrest of Saif who had been groomed as Qaddafi’s successor and with his father had been indicted on war crimes charges by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague will put an end to fears of him ordering terror attacks while he remained free.

He was caught at Umari , on the road between the southern city of Sebha and Ghat on the Algerian border. It had been reported by the National Transitional Council that he was in the area. Three weeks ago, following the killing of his father and brother, it claimed that he was there, trying to negotiate a surrender to the ICC. He may have been getting support from family members in the area. It is where where Muammar Qaddafi was born and brought up. The story that he came from Sirte was a myth he concocted. The Qaddafi tribe is based around Sirte but Qaddafi’s family lived near Sebha and he went to school there.

The border with Niger where his brother Saadi is in exile is also reachable from Umari. However, there have been claims that Saif had visited Algeria, where his mother Safia is currently staying, as it his brother Hannibal along with his half brother Muhammed and his sister Aisha. His other brother Mutassim was killed by troops from Misrata after he was arrested in Sirte the same day as his father, Oct. 27. The whereabouts of his adopted sister, whose death in Sirte during Reagan bombing raid in 1986 turned out to have been a propaganda lie, are unknown. There is also mystery surrounding the fate of his brother Khamis. He was reported killed several times, but no evidence has been provided. If he is dead, then all the Qaddafi’s children other than the youngest, Milad, are now accounted for, although it is also suggested that the death of Saif Al-Arab in an NATO raid on April 30 was also a propaganda lie.

The whereabouts of Muammar Qaddafi’s brother-in-law and intelligence chief, Abdullah Senussi, also wanted by the ICC for human rights crimes, are unknown. Three weeks ago it was said he was with Saif. Seven others were arrested with Saif on Saturday, but he was not one of them.