THE HAGUE, Oct 09, 2012 (AFP)
Libya has already gathered “considerable’ evidence to prosecute the son of slain Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi for crimes against humanity, a lawyer told the International Criminal Court on Tuesday.
The domestic investigation “has already produced considerable results,” Philippe Sands said at a two-day hearing to decide where Seif al-Islam should face justice.
“There is a wide range of evidence that will constitute an indictment the same as that presented by the ICC’s prosecutor,” said Sands, who is representing Tripoli in a two-day hearing before the Hague-based court.
Judges are listening to arguments by Libya and representatives of the ICC to decide where Seif, 40, and Kadhafi’s former spymaster Abdullah Senussi, 63, should be tried.
Sands said Tripoli’s evidence against Seif included how he told Libyan security forces during a television broadcast to use violence shortly after the outbreak of Libya’s uprising in mid-February last year.
Tripoli also alleges that Seif ordered the use of live rounds against civilian demonstrators and that he recruited Pakistani mercenaries to put down the revolt.
Seif has been in custody in the western Libyan hilltown of Zintan since his arrest last November in the wake of the uprising that toppled his father after more than 40 years in power.
