The International Criminal Court again rejected Wednesday attempts by Libya to delay handing over one of former dictator Moammar Gadhafi’s sons, who is wanted for trial.
Judges unanimously dismissed Libya’s latest appeal against the court’s order to surrender Seif al-Islam Gadhafi for trial on charges of murdering and persecuting civilians in the early days of the uprising that toppled his father’s regime last year.
Seif al-Islam was captured by rebels last year and is being held in the western town of Zintan.
Libyan authorities are resisting surrendering him, saying they want to put him on trial at home.
They told us that they planned to shift control of a few prisons this week, but it has not happened. … The government has to take over the prisons one by one by negotiating with the people who run it. It is not uniformly or automatically done.A United Nations official, based in Tripoli • Discussing the situation with Libyan prisons, where conditions in the post-Gaddafi era have gotten quite bad, as rebel-sympathizing prison runners are using the prisons to exact revenge on people who supported the former Libyan leader during the revolution. Prison owners have tried to tell a different story, but some humanitarian groups have stopped helping Libyan prisons due to torture allegations. The United Nations has complained about the problem for months, noting that the government should be in control of the prisons to ensure fair treatment, not former rebels. Roughly 8,500 detainees, many sub-Saharan Africans suspected of fighting for Gaddafi, are being held in detention centers nationwide. source (via • follow)
Qaddafi with Mubarak and Ben Ali, One Year Ago
Taken less than a year before, the photo captured the ear-to-ear smiles of the leaders of several autocratic regimes. At the center of the photo stood Gaddafi, smiling and resplendent in his golden-brown robes and trademark sunglasses.
To his far left stood then-Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, laughing, and looking for all the world like he was invincible. To his right stood then-Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, with Gaddafi’s elbow jauntily on his soldier.
Via us.
Saleh’s in there too! It’s like the genesis of the Arab Spring, in a single room.
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