Libya says to try Seif as ICC prosecutor visits

Libya will not hand over Muammar Gaddafi's most prominent son to the ICC for trial.

Libya will not hand over Muammar Gaddafi’s most prominent son Seif al-Islam to the International Criminal Court for trial,a minister said today as the war crimes court’s prosecutor visited the country.

“In a nutshell,we are not going to hand him over,” interim justice minister Mohammed al-Allagui said when asked about Seif,who was captured in Libya’s far-flung Saharan south on Saturday after three months on the run.

Trying Seif “is the special responsibility of the Libyan courts. It is the prerogative of the Libyan courts. It is a question of our sovereignty over our territory and our citizens,” said Allagui.

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His comments came as the ICC’s chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo was in Tripoli for talks on jurisdiction in the cases of Seif and Gaddafi’s spymaster Abdullah al-Senussi,both of whom are wanted by the court on charges of crimes against humanity.

Allagui said the prosecutor was very welcome to have a meeting with Seif al-Islam in custody to allay concerns that he might be subjected to ill-treatment after his father was killed when he was captured last month.

“If he (Moreno-Ocampo) asked for one,he would be most welcome,” the minister said.

But asked by AFP whether he expected to meet Seif during his current visit,the ICC prosecutor said: “No.”

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Gaddafi’s son is being held in the mainly Berber hill town of Zintan,in the Nafusa mountains some 170 kilometres (110 miles) southwest of Tripoli.

It was fighters from the town who captured Seif on Saturday.

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