Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Gadaffi's son Saif said to have been released from jail

Saif Gadaffi, son of former Libyan leader Muammar Gadaffi was reported to have been released from jail even though he was sentenced to death by a Libyan court in absentia in 2015 for crimes committed during the uprising against his father.

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Lawyer Karim Khan said Saif was given his liberty back on April 12. Khan claimed that Saif was released under an amnesty and "in accordance with Libyan law." Presumably this is a law emanating from the House of Representatives (HoR). Khan did not say whether he had spoken to Saif but said that he was well and safe within Libya.
Saif was thought to have been a likely successor to Gadaffi had he not been overthrown. He was held since 2011 by a militia in Zintan in an area not within the control of the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) nor of the former Salvation government and thus his death sentence July 28, 2015 was never carried out. The court was of the former Salvation government based in Tripoli, now basically superseded by the UN-brokered Government of National Accord (GNA). The trial was condemned by Human Rights Watch, who claimed it was filled with legal flaws and amid what the group called widespread lawlessness that undermined the credibility of the judiciary.
Saif is also wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. The court issued an arrest warrant in 2011 on preliminary charges that Saif had committed crimes against humanity, and murder as part of his father's inner circle. Khan said he will file an application to make the ICC case inadmissible on the grounds that Saif had already been tried in Libya. He claimed to try him again would be "double jeopardy" or trying a person twice for the same offence.
There are several tweets on the issue. The first one says: 1/2 Just spoke to Saif al-Islam Gaddafi attny Karim Khan who confirms his client was freed under #Libya amnesty since April 12th. The second one: ‏@FrancoisF24 2/2 Attny won't disclose #SaifAlIslam's location, says he will argue for #ICC to drop its case, argues against trying twice' .
Said has a PH.D. from the London School of Economics, Charges have been made that his thesis was plagiarized but a review panel in November of 2011 ruled that it should not be revoked.

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