Libya court sentences Kadhafi son, eight aides to death

Former intelligence chief Abdullah Senussi and Gaddafi’s last prime minister Al-Baghdadi al-Mahmudi were among the defendants.

Saif Al-Islam Gadhafi is being held by militia allied to the Tobruk government, making it unlikely that he will face the firing squad in Tripoli.

After Gaddafi was toppled in 2011, Saif al-Islam fled to Niger, but was extradited from there a year ago.

The sentences can and likely will be appealed, must receive confirmation by the Supreme Court of Libya.

Before the 2011 Libyan civil war, he was believed to be a moderate in comparison to his father.

Once they had been some of the most powerful men in Libya, with the power of life and death over their fellow citizens.

DRESSED in blue prison uniforms, some of the most feared apparatchiks of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime lined up for sentencing in a Tripoli courtroom on July 28th.

Gaddafi was killed in October 2011 after being captured by rebels during Libya’s war. On Tuesday she called for him to be transferred to the ICC, which indicted him for war crimes and crimes against humanity in 2011. A holder of a dubious PhD degree from the London School of Economics, Gaddafi was locked in Zintan, a mountainous region in western Libya.

Among the charges he was convicted of were incitement of murder and rape. Following reports of his arrest, Gaddafi boldly took to the streets of Tripoli, apparently unprotected, and shook supporters’ hands, flashing a victory sign and claiming the Gaddafis still controlled Libya.

The former rebel group holding Gaddafi have refused all requests to hand him over to the central government.

During the trial, Seif al-Islam was accused of recruiting mercenaries who were given Libyan nationality, planning and carrying out attacks on civilian targets from the air, forming armed groups and shooting into crowds of demonstrators.

Other defendants are held in Libya’s third city Misrata which is loyal to the Tripoli authorities and have also appeared at previous hearings by video link.

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi’s sentence – death by shooting – was the first to be announced, and a little quiver ran around the court-room as it was.

The United Nations has hosted several rounds of negotiations aimed at a peace deal between the two governments.

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Charges before the Tripoli court also included kidnapping, plunder, sabotage and embezzlement of public funds.