THE GUARDIAN: Chief prosecutor requests crimes against humanity arrest warrants for Libyan leader, son Saif al-Islam and intelligence chief Abdullah Senussi
Muammar Gaddafi, his son Saif al-Islam and his brother-in-law and intelligence chief, Abdullah Senussi, have been named as suspects for crimes against humanity by the chief prosecutor for the international criminal court in The Hague.
Presenting his request for arrest warrants to the ICC, the chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, said the men formed an inner circle who carried out the Libyan leader's orders to crush peaceful protests by ordering attacks with live ammunition and heavy weapons.
"His second eldest son Saif al-Islam is a de facto prime minister and Abdullah Senussi is his right-hand man, the executioner. [My] office documented how the three held meetings to plan and direct the operations," Moreno-Ocampo said. The prosecutor said he had "direct evidence" of the three men committing the crimes.
A panel of three ICC judges will now decide whether to grant the arrest warrants, after which Moreno-Ocampo said it was primarily up to Libyans themselves to enforce them.
However, the naming of Saif al-Islam as a prime suspect in crimes against humanity will alone be enough to cause shock and embarrassment to his prominent and wealthy circle of friends in Europe and the US, and particularly in the UK, where he studied at the London School of Economics and lived in Hampstead Garden Suburb, an exclusive district of London.
"His address book is going to be bulging with significant contacts. The question is going to be how long those contacts stayed in touch and at what point they cut him off," a source familiar with the investigation said. Those questions may be answered in part by a study of Saif al-Islam's mobile telephone records and other communications by the ICC investigators. » | Julian Borger, diplomatic editor | Monday, May 16, 2011
