Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, fearing for his life if captured in Libya, ried to arrange for an aircraft to fly him out

@Barb561Barbara Hill

.MT Gadhafi' son Saif; fearing for his life, said to seek flight to Hague:on.msnbc.com/rqATVd via@msnbc #Libya

DUBAI — Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, fearing for his life if captured in Libya, has tried to arrange for an aircraft to fly him out of his desert refuge and into the custody of the Hague war crimes court, a senior Libyan official said Thursday.

Details were sketchy, but a picture has built up since his father's grisly killing while in the hands of vengeful rebel fighters a week ago that suggests Moammar Gadhafi's 39-year-old heir-apparent has taken refuge among Sahara nomads and is seeking a safe haven abroad.

The senior Libyan official in the National Transitional Council said later that Saif al-Islam had crossed the border into Niger but had not yet found a way to hand himself in to the International Criminal Court at The Hague.

"There is a contact with Mali and with South Africa and with another neighboring country to organize his exit.... He hasn't got confirmation yet, he's still waiting," said the official, who declined to be named.

That may explain an apparent willingness, in communications monitored by intelligence services and shared with Libya's interim rulers, to discuss a surrender to the ICC, whereas his mother and surviving siblings simply fled to Algeria and Niger.Even if he can still draw on some of the vast fortune the Gadhafi clan built up abroad during 42 years in control of North Africa's main oilfields, his indictment by the ICC over his efforts to crush the revolt limits the options open to him.

Story: Libya: Gadhafi son offers to surrender to Hague

The Court, which relies on signatory states to hand over suspects, said it was trying to confirm the whereabouts and intentions of Saif al-Islam and ex-intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi, the third man indicted along with the elder Gadhafi.A source with the NTC, which drove the Gadhafis from power in Tripoli in August, told Reuters the two surviving indictees were together, protected by Tuareg nomads.

"Saif is concerned about his safety," the source said. "He believes handing himself over is the best option for him."

The younger Gadhafi, once seen as a potential liberal reformer but who adopted a belligerent, win-or-die persona at his father's side this year, was looking for help from abroad to fly out and take his chances at The Hague, where there is no death penalty.

"He wants to be sent an aircraft," the NTC source said by telephone from Libya. "He wants assurances."

ICC spokesman Fadi El Abdallah said the court was trying to confirm the NTC comments and work out how to move the suspects.

"It depends where the suspect is and how we can get into contact with him and what would be necessary to bring him to The Hague. There are different scenarios," El Abdallah said.

Welcome in Africa?
Some observers question the accuracy of NTC information, given frequent lapses in intelligence recently. Some suggest surrendering to the ICC may be only one option for Saif al-Islam, who may hope for a welcome in one of the African states on which his father lavished gifts.

The African Union, and powerful members like South Africa, grumble about the nine-year-old ICC's focus so far on Africans and some of them may prove sympathetic. Even if arrested on charges relating to his role in attacks on protesters in February and March, Saif al-Islam could make defense arguments that might limit any sentence, lawyers said.

NTC forces, which overran Gadhafi's last bastions of Bani Walid and Sirte this month, lack the resources to hunt and capture fugitives deep in the desert, the source said.

NATO, whose air power turned the civil war in the rebels' favor, could help, he added.

But NATO, which will end its Libya operations at the end of the month, stresses its mission is to protect civilians, not target individuals - though it was a NATO air strike that halted Moammar Gadhafi's flight last week.