TRIPOLI // A Libyan court sentenced Muammar Qaddafi’s son, Saif Al Islam, and eight of the former dictator’s aides to death on Tuesday for crimes committed during the country’s 2011 uprising.
Former intelligence chief Abdullah Senussi and Qaddafi’s last prime minister Al Baghdadi Al Mahmudi were among those sentenced to death along with the now-dead leader’s one-time heir apparent.
Saif Al Islam is beyond the reach of the court because he is held in the south-western hill town of Zintan by militia opposed to the Tripoli authorities.
Senussi and Al Mahmudi were in the dock, however, and now face possible execution, although their death sentences can be appealed to the supreme court.
The trial, which opened in the Libyan capital in April last year, has been dogged by criticism from human rights watchdogs and an unresolved dispute with the International Criminal Court in The Hague over jurisdiction in the case of Saif Al Islam.
The 37 defendants were charged with crimes including murder and complicity in incitement to rape during the 2011 uprising that toppled the dictatorship. Other charges included kidnapping, plunder, sabotage and embezzlement of public funds.
Twenty-nine defendants appeared in court for Tuesday’s sentencing. They were brought into the black cage in blue prison uniforms, some with their heads shaved.
Most sat impassively in the dock. Senussi, the former spy chief, joked with his guards.
After the verdicts were read out, one of his fellow defendants screamed out “criminals, bandits”, before being led away to the cells.
Senussi has been in custody since September 2012, when he was handed over by Mauritania, where he had sought refuge after the regime’s overthrow. His 17-year-old daughter, Salma, on Tuesday renewed the family’s long-standing criticism of Mauritania’s decision to surrender him for trial in a country with a widely criticised legal system.
“They kidnapped my father in front of my eyes. Is this justice?” she said.
“Even if my father did something wrong, I would ask them to put him in a real court in a place with rule of law,” she said from her home in England.
“We are just asking for justice and mercy. He’s not guilty.”
The militia holding Saif Al Islam is loyal to the internationally recognised government, which fled to the country’s remote east in August, when a rival militia alliance seized the capital and set up its own administration.
Saif Al Islam’s sole appearances before the court have been by video link and there have been none since May last year.
Other defendants are held in Libya’s third city, Misurata, which is loyal to the Tripoli authorities. They have also appeared at previous hearings by video link.
The UN security council referred the conflict in Libya to the ICC in February 2011 amid Qaddafi’s repression of the popular uprising against his decades-old regime at the height of the Arab Spring.
Saif Al Islam is wanted by The Hague-based court on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
ICC prosecutors say that as part of his father’s “inner circle”, he “conceived and orchestrated a plan to deter and quell, by all means, the civilian demonstrations against Qaddafi’s regime”.
Three of Qaddafi’s sons died in the 2011 uprising. Another, Saadi, was extradited to Libya from Niger in March last year.
Qaddafi himself, who ruled Libya for four decades, was captured and killed by rebels in October 2011.
Saif Al Islam has been held in Zintan since his capture in November the same year, despite repeated demands by the ICC for Libya to hand him over for trial.
Prosecutor general Siddick Al Sour acknowledged that there was no prospect of Saif Al Islam facing the court’s sentence any time soon but said that was a matter for politicians.
“The court pronounced sentence and has nothing to do with the political conflict,” Mr Al Sour said. “Libya has one court and one prosecutor general.”
Eight defendants were sentenced to life in prison, seven to 12 years, four to 10, three to six and one to five. Four others were acquitted, while one was ordered confined to a psychiatric hospital.
Human rights groups have expressed concerns about the trial, criticising the fact that the accused have had only limited access to lawyers and key documents.
* Agence France-Presse