The former intelligence chief of Muammar Qaddafi was extradited by Mauretanian authorities to Libya yesterday to face trial in the country where he was a feared figure for decades.
A representative of the prosecutor-general confirmed that Abdullah Al Senoussi arrived in Libya yesterday afternoon and is being in the same Tripoli prison as former prime minister Al Baghdadi Ali Al Mahmoudi, who was extradited from Tunisia this year.
The representative, Milad Daghali, said that case against Senoussi would also involve further investigations into Qaddafi's favoured son, Saif Al Islam, who is being held in the mountain town of Zintan. This could mean that the latter's trial, set for the end of the month, could be postponed.
"This is very important for us to bring Senoussi to justice," said Zahi Mogherbi, emeritus political science professor in the eastern city of Benghazi. "We are convinced that he was part of the regime which committed a lot of atrocities against the Libyan people since the mid 70s … We want to know the truth about what happened and his role and that he is brought to justice."
He added that there is a widespread public perception that Mr Senoussi should be tried in Libya, rather than at the International Criminal Court, which issued an arrest warrant for him in June last year, because Libyans wanted to investigate specific cases. These include the public hanging of students, the disappearance of the Lebanese religious leader Musa Sadr in 1978 and persecution of Islamists in the 1980s and 90s. "The Libyan people have the right to try him," he said.
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