Saif al-Islam Gadaffi’s trial will be delayed by five months, official says

Libya will delay the trial of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of the slain Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, by five months, prosecutor general office says.

The decision was made on Sunday in order to include any relevant testimony acquired via the questioning of Gaddafi’s former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi, who was recently extradited to the new Libyan government, Reuters reported. 

“We were ready to try Saif al-Islam this month but after bringing back Senussi to Libya, new information will come to light which will delay the trial for at least five months,” Milad al-Zintani, lawyer at the prosecutor general's office said.

On Wednesday, Mauritania extradited Senussi, who had been arrested in March for illegal entry to the Northwestern African country. The extradition happened after a high-level meeting between Libyan and Mauritanian officials on Tuesday. 

Gaddafi’s spy chief, who will be tried by the Libyan government for crimes against humanity during the country’s last year revolution, is also wanted by France and the International Criminal Court (ICC). 

In June 2011, ICC also charged Saif al-Islam with crimes against humanity over the killing of civilian protesters during mass demonstrations against the regime of his father, who was deposed in August 2011. 

Saif al-Islam is further accused of organizing a plan to use “any means necessary” to suppress the Libyan revolution together with his slain father. 

Since Saif al-Islam’s arrest in November 2011, Libyan officials repeatedly said that they want him to stand trial at home and not at the ICC in The Hague. 

In January 2012, Libya's minister of justice Ali Humaida Ashour announced that "the trial [of Saif al-Islam] will be in public and observers will have the right to attend court.” 

NT/MR/AS

Source: PressTv (10/09/2012): http://www.presstv.com/detail/2012/09/10/260737/gaddafi-sons-trial-to-be-postponed/