TRIPOLI – Conflicting reports emerged Monday about whether the son of Libya’s deposed leader would be tried there, CNN reports.
A member of Libya’s National Transitional Council said Saif al-Islam Gadhafi would be taken to a court in Tripoli soon, but a spokesman for the International Criminal Court said judges had not decided where a trial would be held.
“The ICC judges have not made any decisions regarding this case,” spokesman Fadi el-Abdallah said.
El-Abdallah said Libyan authorities have not filed a challenge to the admissibility of the case in the international court – a step they would need to take before ICC judges can decide where the trial should be held.
But Mohammed al-Sayeh, a member of the interim council governing Libya, said Monday that the ICC had agreed that Gadhafi could be tried in Libya. “Soon he will be taken to Tripoli to attend the court,” al-Sayeh said. “It is not decided whether he will be taken to a jail in Tripoli or just go to Tripoli just for the hearing.”
The late Moammar Gadhafi’s son, once seen as his heir apparent, was captured in November after the fall of his father’s regime in August. He is being held in the Libyan city of Zintan. He was facing an arrest warrant from the ICC at the time of his capture. The ICC initially demanded that Libya hand over Gadhafi for trial after his capture, but then opened the possibility that he could be tried in Libya.
