@SumayyahGSumayyah Kelani
TRIPOLI, Nov 19 - Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, who was captured in the rugged desert, transformed himself during this year's uprising from a relaxed reformer to a belligerent and loyal lieutenant of his father who is now wanted by the ICC accused of crimes against humanity.
Saif catured this morning on way to Niger
Said reportedly captured this summer
Mo would say thank you
Saif al-Islam, the late Muammar Gaddafi and his spy chief were charged by the International Criminal Court over the bloody military crackdown on the popular revolt that erupted in February as part of the shockwaves that jolted the Arab world.
In his final days on the run, witnesses said Saif al-Islam, 39, was nervous, confused and frightened, at first calling his father by satellite phone, swearing aides to secrecy about his whereabouts, and after his father was killed seeking to avoid a similarly gruesome fate.
There had been fears that aided by Tuareg tribesmen who had benefited from Gaddafi senior's largesse during his 42 years in power, that Saif al-Islam could hide indefinitely in the mountains that straddle Libya's borders with Niger, Algeria and Mali.
But he was captured by fighters from the mountains of Zintan and a photograph of him shown on Libyan television showed him nursing a hand injury. His future is now uncertain.
Saif al-Islam had expected to inherit dynastic power over Libya and as the revolt took hold vowed to fight and die on Libyan soil rather than capitulate, but now he faces the prospect of trial by the new government or the ICC.
The only one of Muammar Gaddafi's eight children who had been still on the run, Saif al-Islam had offered to surrender to the Hague-based ICC but some officials there feared this could be a bluff and warned mercenaries with him that if they sought to escape by aircraft they could be shot down.
There had been some dangerous moments for Saif al-Islam. He escaped even though his motorcade was hit by a NATO air strike as it left the town of Bani Walid on Oct. 19, the day before his father died in his hometown of Sirte. Continued...
