Gaddafi’s son demands trail in Zintan, not Tripoli

Tripoli – Saif al-Islam, the second son of slain Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, has demanded he be tried in the western city of Zintan rather than capital Tripoli.

“There is no difference between Zintan and Tripoli,” Xinhua quoted Gaddafi as saying during his first television appearance on Tuesday under detention.

Libyan Attorney General Abdel Kader Radwan has urged a court in Zintan to hand over Saif al-Islam so that he can be tried along with 36 other Gaddafi-era officials accused of war crimes during the 2011 uprising.

But the militia group in control of Zintan has refused to hand the second son of Gaddafi over due to security concerns.

Colonel Ajami Aotaira, who arrested Saif al-Islam three years ago, termed the attorney general’s repeated requests of handing over the indicted to Tripoli as an attempt to discredit Zintan.

He said Saif al-Islam could be easily targeted in the capital. Aotaira also accused that Radwan is colluding with religious groups to push their own agenda that is not fitting with the national interests.

Saif al-Islam was arrested in November 2011 in Libya’s southern desert by a militia group, a month after his father was killed in his home town of Sirte.

He made an appearance Sep 19 in the Zintan Court on security charges. The court postponed the trial to Dec 12, waiting for the presence of another six defendants.