The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has called on the Libyan Government to take all possible measures to arrest and surrender of Seif al-Islam Gaddafi to the court.
Seif Al-Islam, a son of the late Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, is the subject of an ICC warrant, Fatou Bensouda told the Security Council on Monday.
“I must recall that the arrest warrant for Mr. Saif al-Islam Gaddafi is still outstanding,” Mrs. Bensouda said in a speech to the Security Council via videoconference.
“I reiterate that Mr Gaddafi remains a willing fugitive from justice. I stress that Libya remains under a legal obligation to arrest him and surrender him to the Court. I also reiterate the calls made by my office directly to Mr. Gaddafi to surrender immediately to the relevant Libyan authorities for transfer to the Court for trial. The accused has all the guarantees of due process at the ICC,” she said.
In 2011, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Seif al-Islam for crimes against humanity during the crackdown on protesters against his father’s regime.
He was released in 2017 by an armed group that held him in Zenten, 186 km southwest of Tripoli, following amnesty granted by the Libyan parliament sitting in Tobruk after having been sentenced to death in 2014 by a court in Tripoli. His fate remains a mystery.
The ICC Prosecutor reiterated that non-compliance with ICC arrest warrants remains a major stumbling block to her Office’s ability to seek effective justice for the victims of atrocious crimes committed in Libya.
She recalled that recently, according to credible reports, two ICC suspects with arrest warrants for crimes committed in Libya have died and will never be brought to justice by the Court.
They are Mahmoud Mustapha Bousayef al-Werfalli and al-Touhamy Mohamed Khaled.
Al-Werfalli, as commander of the al-Saiqa Brigade, allegedly executed 43 civilians as specified in two arrest warrants, while Khaled was allegedly responsible for the commission of serious crimes, including torture.
Al-Werfalli was recently murdered in unclear circumstances in the eastern city of Benghazi while Khaled died in Egypt where he had fled in 2011.
