@BahInjusticeBahrainInjustceStory
SAIF GADDAFI IN INDIRECT TALKS WITH THE ICC – SAYS HE CAN “PROVE HIS INNOCENCE”:NATO TO FORMALLY END ITS OPERATIONS OVER LIBYA ON OCTOBER 31st:
GADDAFI’S FORMER PM “RELEASED” ON BAIL PENDING EXTRADITION HEARING:
NTC TO HOLD AN INVESTIGATION INTO GADDAFI’S DEATH:
TIMELINE – 28th October 2011 13.25 GMT:
Saif Gaddafi, now reportedly in Niger, is in indirect talks with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague.
According to the ICC Chief Prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, who does not know exactly where Saif is, the ICC has been contacted by intermediaries and “informal conversations” are taking place to see if he can be surrendered to the court.
Apparently, Saif believes he is innocent of the charges against him and that he can prove his innocence, says Moreno-Ocampo. Saif was also pressing for clarification of his position if he is acquitted and where he would be sent.
Luis Moreno-Campo, ICC Chief Prosecutor
Moreno-Campo has made it clear that if he was acquitted, then he could ask the judges to send him on his release to a country other than Libya.
If he was found guilty then he would receive a long term of imprisonment – the ICC does not impose the death penalty.
Saif Gaddafi - Considering His Options - AP
Moreno-Campo said that he was also aware that Saif Gaddafi had another option i.e. that the mercenaries travelling with him, reported to be South Africans, are proposing to get him to another country that would safely harbour him and that is not a signatory of the ICC convention agreement.
Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe is the most likely.
The ICC Chief Prosecutor added that the ICC was already in touch with a number of countries to block any over-flying permission that Saif Gaddafi might request, unless he was headed directly to the Hague.
An unnamed NTC official said that the Council was aware of the situation and that they understood Saif Gaddafi was in Niger contemplating his position and in touch with Mali, a potential transit point to the Hague, and South Africa.
However, the NTC has since expressed the view that it is “not happy” with direct contact between Saif and the ICC, preferring that he was tried in Libya by Libyans.
Even if Saif can gain access to some of the vast Gaddafi fortune distributed throughout the world, the ICC warrant hanging over his head will severely limit his options and his ability to travel. The BBC has a video report HERE:
