Tripoli, 21 April 2013:
Ahmed Qaddaf Al-Dam, facing extradition to Libya on corruption and forgery charges, is to be put on trial . . .[restrict]in Egypt for attempted murder according to the official Egyptian news agency MENA.
Qaddaf al-Dam’s case was sent “to the Cairo criminal court on charges of attempted murder and resisting authorities and unlicensed weapons possession,” MENA said today.
Qaddafi’s cousin and leading aide was involved, along with bodyguards, in a shoot-out with Egyptian police on 19 March when they arrived at his Cairo house to arrest him. One policeman was wounded as a result. Since then the public prosecutor’s office has repeated said he could face attempted murder charges.
Earlier this month, an Egyptian court refused Libya’s request to extradite him, ruling that he should face trial first in Egypt for alleged crimes there. This, however, was seen in Libya as an attempt to prevent him being extradited and the Libyan government launched an appeal against the ruling.
Then on 9 April, Egypt’s Attorney General decided to move him from house arrest and hold him in prison for interrogation as to whether he had tried to murder a police officer when he arrested.
Qaddaf al-Dam, who ran the regime’s relations with Egypt is meanwhile trying to claim that he has Egyptian nationality – and therefore cannot be extradited – because he was born to Egyptian parents. [/restrict]
