Thursday 27 October 2011

Gaddafi's son Saif offers to 'hand himself in' to International Criminal Court

[This is the headline over a report published today in the Daily Mail.  It reads in part:]

Colonel Gaddafi’s favourite son  – Saif al-Islam – has offered to  ‘surrender’ to the International Criminal Court in The Hague in return for a guarantee of his safety, Libyan officials said.

The 39-year-old British-educated playboy has been on the run since the Nato airstrike on the city of Sirte last Thursday that led to his father’s capture and execution.

The offer of surrender raises the prospect of a trial in The Hague which could include new details of the background to the Lockerbie bombing and murder of policewoman Yvonne Fletcher.

But it could prove embarrassing as Saif was close to leading figures in the last Labour government, not least Tony Blair.

A senior official in the National Transitional Council, Abdel Majid Mlegta, said Saif and former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi, the ousted tyrant’s brother-in-law, had been trying to broker a deal through a third country – believed to be Niger – to hand themselves in.

Senussi is said to have fled into Niger late last week and there were reports last night that Saif had also crossed into the country where hundreds of millions of pounds of Gaddafi’s smuggled money is held.

Saif and Senussi are wanted on ICC warrants for genocide and crimes against the Libyan people.

Commander Mlegta said the men believed ‘nowhere was safe’ for them. ‘They are proposing a way to hand themselves over to The Hague,’ he said. ‘They feel that it is not safe for them anywhere.’ (...)

Any court appearance by Saif would inevitably turn a spotlight on Britain’s attempts to foster a relationship with Gaddafi’s favoured son, who became the West’s ‘point man’ after Tony Blair signed the notorious ‘Deal in the Desert’ in March 2004.

Last year Saif described Mr Blair as a ‘personal family friend’ and said he had visited Libya ‘many, many times’ since leaving Downing Street. (...)

One Libyan official, quoted by Reuters, (...) said Saif’s escape was being masterminded by Gaddafi’s former intelligence chief Senussi, who is also wanted by the International Criminal Court.

5 comments:

  1. MISSION LOCKERBIE, 2011, doc. nr.7057.rtf. (google translation, german/english):

    -- / .- / -.-- / -.. /.- /-.-- / >> /-.. /. /. / -.../ mayday-- mayday-- mayday

    to UN and NATO:
    Please protect Mr.Saif El Islam, so that He suffer not the same fate as his father and brother Mutassim !
    Not forget: Saif El Islam was finally the "DRIVER" for a future democratic Libya ...

    It is very important that Saif El Islam stay alive, because he tell in his statement at the World Economic Forum (WEF), 2009, that he had access inside the SCCRC-files !
    His knowledge is authoritative in the process for the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague against him and shed light on the "Lockerbie- Affair" in favor of Mr. Abdelbaset Al Megrahi etc... for that reason:

    by Edwin Bollier, Mebo Ltd, Telecommunication Switzerland. URL: www.lockerbie.ch

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  2. I suspect the SAS will now step up their efforts to catch him and have him killed by the rebels. Surely, the UK wouldn't want him opening his mouth about the extent of their special relationship with Libya and in particular the true facts about the release of Megrahi. But of course there is the other options of buying him off together with the threat of manipulating the judges.

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  3. Saif playing the long game!

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  4. Saif playing the long game!

    Confirmed by today's Guardian:

    "But some Libyan officials suggest [Saif] is attempting to buy time and to ensure that NATO jets, which will finish their mission in three days, will not again try to bomb his convoy."

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