International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has rejected a request made by Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi - son of the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi - for an international arrest warrant against him to be ruled inadmissible.
Bensouda, delivering her latest six-monthly statement to the Security Council on the situation in Libya, said that her office maintains that Gaddafi must be arrested and surrendered to the Court.
Gaddafi has argued that, because of ongoing domestic proceedings conducted against him in Libya, he cannot be tried at the ICC.
In the international warrant, issued by the ICC in June 2011, Gaddafi is accused of playing a key role in planning the suppression of civilian demonstrations by any means, including lethal force, against his father’s regime, said Bensouda.
She added that Mahmoud Mustafa Busayf al‑Werfalli, a commander in the Al-Saiqua Brigade, and Al‑Tuhamy Mohamed Khaled, the former head of the Libyan internal security agency, also remain at large.
Bensouda warned that "in the absence of accountability, impunity will continue to reign in Libya, causing great suffering and instability.”
Investigations indicate that Gaddafi and Al-Werfalli remain in Libya, while Al-Tuhami is outside the country.
The ICC Prosecutor also told the Council that her office “continues to monitor criminal conduct carried out by members of armed groups in Libya who use violence to exert control over State institutions, commit serious human rights violations and exploit detainees in unregulated prisons and places of detention throughout the country.”
She said her office “continued to receive evidence of alleged crimes committed against migrants transiting through Libya, including killings, sexual violence, torture and enslavement.”
