Niger has turned over a son of the late dictator Moamer Daddafi to Libyan authorities, Tripoli said Thursday, as a government-allied militia released pictures of him in captivity.
The government said Saadi Gaddafi, who fled across
the Sahara desert to Niger during the 2011 uprising that saw rebels
capture and kill his father, ending his four-decade dictatorship, was in
Libyan custody.
The Tripoli Revolutionaries Brigade, a militia
made up of former rebels, released five pictures on Facebook of a
disconsolate-looking Saadi in a blue jumpsuit getting his head and beard
shaved.
He knelt on the floor as his hair was removed by a man wielding an electric razor.
Libya’s government said he would be held in accordance with “international standards regarding the treatment of prisoners”.
Saadi Gaddafi was best known as the head of Libya’s football federation and a player who paid his way into Italy’s top division.
The playboy footballer, born in May 1973, had been off the radar since fleeing across the desert in September 2011.
Interpol had issued a “Red Notice” for him, for
“allegedly misappropriating properties through force and armed
intimidation when he headed the Libyan Football Federation”.
Libya had repeatedly called for Saadi’s
extradition from Niger, which had granted him asylum since September
2011 on “humanitarian” grounds, saying it had insufficient guarantees
Libya’s new rulers would give him a fair trial.
Saadi is subject to UN sanctions including a
travel ban and assets freeze. Three of Gaddafi’s sons were killed in the
2011 uprising, including Mutassim, who was killed by rebels in Sirte on
the same day as his father.
Their bodies were later put on public display in
Misrata, 215 kilometres (135 miles) east of Tripoli, before being buried
at a secret location in the desert.(AFP)
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