A team of investigators from the International Criminal Court arrived in Libya to begin an inquiry into new evidence of sex crimes committed by loyalists of former leader Moammar Qaddafi as part of an “official rape policy.”
An estimated 7,000 detainees are still being held without due process by Libyan revolutionaries, according to a UN report. Most are held by independent brigades not under the government control, and that there have been allegations of abuse.
International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said that Libya may conduct the trial of Saif al-Islam Qaddafii—despite concern from human rights groups about whether he can receive impartial justice in the country.
Saif al-Islam Qaddafi was captured by fighters from Zintan, who say they will hold him until a new government is formed. The Zintan and rival Jadu militias are refusing NTC pressure to disarm, each fearing reprisals from the other.
NTC forces based in the western city of Zawiya have for the past days been clashing with Wershifanna tribal fighters in the nearby Hashan area. Rumors maintain that Saif al-Islam Qaddafi is being harbored by the tribal fighters.
Niger’s military clashed with a heavily armed convoy travelling though the desert from Libya. Authorities say the convoy is made up of fleeing Qaddafi loyalists escorted by local Tuareg fighters, with arms bound for the AQIM network.
International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said all war crimes allegations against NATO, NTC and pro-Qaddafi forces committed during the recent conflict will be investigated “impartially and independently.”
Algeria is sending military forces to the border with Western Sahara after a group of Spanish and Italian aid workers were kidnapped from the Polisario-run refugee camps at Tindouf by supposed al-Qaeda militants.
Abdurraheem el-Keib—a dual US-Libyan citizen and veteran of the energy industry, described favorably as a “technocrat” by the Washington Post—was elected prime minister of Libya by leaders of the National Transitional Council.
As elite voices in the West call for breaking Libya up along “tribal lines,” the country’s Berbers—who have the most to fear from a centralized Arab-dominated regime—issued a statement calling for a unified state with equal rights for all.
Swiss Federal Judicial Police detained Algeria’s former defense minister Khaled Nezzar for questioning by prosecutors on “suspicion of war crimes” carried out during the North African country’s civil war in the 1990s.
Amnesty International is calling for the NTC to give a full accounting of the slaying of Moammar Qaddafi. Reports conflict on whether he was already injured by a NATO air-strike when he was captured, or was shot while in the hands of NTC fighters.
