Libyan officials are determined to resist attempts to bring Muammar Gaddafi's son, Saif al-Islam, before the international criminal court [sic], claiming he should instead face justice at home.
Colonel Ahmed Bani, the military spokesman for Libya's interim rulers, said they were insistent that the international body should not win custody of its most wanted man. "We will not accept that our sovereignty be violated like that," he said. "We will put him on trial here. This is where he must face the consequences of what he has done. We will prove to the world that we are a civilised people with a fair justice system. Libya has its rights and its sovereignty and we will exercise them."
The gruesome scenes of his father's death give Gaddafi, 39, little incentive to surrender to the new rulers, or the rebel forces searching for him in the Sahara.
It is understood that Gaddafi has acknowledged to the ICC and the National Transitional Council that he is aware of his father's brutal demise in his hometown of Sirte. Officials in Tripoli fear that the former heir apparent does not intend to surrender to The Hague, and is playing for time in an attempt to escape into a nearby African state. » | Martin Chulov in Tripoli | Saturday, October 29, 2011
