Tripoli: A Libyan court sentenced a son and eight aides of slain dictator Muammar Gaddafi to death for crimes during the 2011 uprising on Tuesday after a trial overshadowed by the country’s bloody division.
Former intelligence chief Abdullah Senoosi and Gaddafi’s last prime minister Al Baghdadi Al Mahmoodi were among those sentenced to death along with Saif Al Islam, the dictator’s son and onetime heir apparent.
Saif Al Islam is beyond the reach of the court because he is held in the southwestern hill town of Zintan by militia opposed to the Tripoli authorities.
But both Senoosi and Mahmoodi were in the dock and face possible execution although their death sentences can be appealed to the supreme court.
The trial, which opened in the Libyan capital in April last year, has been dogged by criticism from human rights watchdogs and an unresolved dispute with the International Criminal Court in The Hague over jurisdiction in the case of the Gaddafi son.
The 37 defendants were charged with crimes including murder and complicity in incitement to rape during the 2011 uprising that toppled the dictatorship.
Twenty-nine defendants appeared in court for Tuesday’s sentencing. They were brought into the black cage in blue prison uniforms, some with their heads shaved.
Most sat impassively in the dock. Senoosi, the former spy chief, joked with his guards.
After the verdicts were read out, one of his fellow defendants screamed out: “Criminals, bandits,” before being led away to the cells.
Senoosi has been in custody since September 2012 when he was handed over by Mauritania, where he had sought refuge after the regime’s overthrow.
His 17-year-old daughter Salma on Tuesday renewed the family’s longstanding criticism of the Mauritanian decision to surrender him for trial in a country with a widely criticised legal system.
“They kidnapped my father in front of my eyes. Is this justice?” she complained.
“Even if my father did something wrong, I would ask them to put him in a real court in a place with rule of law,” she told AFP from her home in England.
“We are just asking for justice and mercy. He’s not guilty.”
The militia holding Saif Al Islam is loyal to the internationally recognised government which fled to the remote east last August when a rival militia alliance seized the capital and set up its own administration.
Saif Al Islam’s sole appearances before the court have been by video link and there have been none since May last year.
Other defendants are held in Libya’s third city Misrata which is loyal to the Tripoli authorities and have also appeared at previous hearings by video link.
The UN Security Council referred the conflict in Libya to the ICC in February 2011 amid Gaddafi’s repression of the popular uprising against his decades-old regime at the height of the Arab Spring.
Saif Al Islam is wanted by the Hague-based court on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
ICC prosecutors say that as part of his father’s “inner circle”, he “conceived and orchestrated a plan to deter and quell, by all means, the civilian demonstrations against Gaddafi’s regime”.
Three of Gaddafi’s sons died in the 2011 uprising. Another, Sa’adi, was extradited to Libya from Niger in March 2014.
Muammar Gaddafi himself, who ruled Libya for four decades, was captured and killed by rebels in October 2011.
Saif Al Islam has been held in Zintan since his capture in November the same year despite repeated ICC demands for Libya to hand him over for trial.
Prosecutor general Siddick Al Sour acknowledged that there was no prospect of Saif Al Islam facing the court’s sentence any time soon but said that was a matter for politicians.
“The court pronounced sentence and has nothing to do with the political conflict,” Sour said. “Libya has one court and one prosecutor general.”
Charges before the Tripoli court also included kidnapping, plunder, sabotage and embezzlement of public funds.
Eight defendants were sentenced to life in prison, seven to 12 years, four to 10, three to six and one to five.
Four were acquitted and one was ordered confined to a psychiatric hospital.
Human rights groups have expressed concerns about the trial, criticising the fact that the accused have had only limited access to lawyers and key documents.
