Tripoli, 20 July 2013:
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has rejected Libya’s request to suspend its demands to hand over Saif Al-Islam . . .[restrict]Qaddafi.
“The Appeals Chamber was not convinced by the reasons provided as to why the surrender of Saif to the Court would create, for the Libyan authorities, an irreversible situation or one that would be very difficult to correct,” the ICC said.
The Court pointed out that Libya was still “obliged to surrender” Saif to the ICC.
The country asked for the handover request to be suspended following an appeal by the Libyan authorities against the ICC’s rejection of Libya’s wish to try Saif in a local court for crimes against humanity. The court concluded then that Libya had not demonstrated that its own investigation into Saif’s alleged crimes “cover the same case that is before the Court.”
Saif is being held in a prison in Zintan He appeared in a Zintan court in May on separate charges of trying to escape and insulting the Libyan flag. [/restrict]
