War crimes prosecutors seek Muammar Gaddafi’s arrest
A picture taken in Gaza city on May 11, 2011 shows Libyan state TV showing footage of strongman Muammar Gaddafi in a meeting, the first time he has appeared on television since an air strike the regime termed an attempt on his life. State TV said the footage was of a meeting between Gaddafi and eastern tribal dignitaries. The video showed an apparently unharmed Gaddafi, who was wearing sunglasses and dressed in a black robe and hat with a brown sash, greeting the leaders and then holding talks with them seated in a half circle around him.
The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor is seeking to arrest Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and two others for crimes against humanity.
Luis Moreno-Ocampo has requested arrest warrants for Gaddafi, his second-oldest son Saif al-Islam and his brother-in-law Abdullah al-Senussi, the Libyan intelligence chief, saying they bear the greatest responsibility for “widespread and systematic attacks” on civilians.
However, a panel of ICC judges must still decide whether or not to accept the application and issue warrants.
The Libyan government has said it will ignore the ICC chief's announcement, the BBC reports. Libya’s deputy foreign minister Khalid Kaim said the court was a "baby of the European Union designed for African politicians and leaders" and its practices were "questionable."
Moreno-Ocampo's call for the arrest of Gaddafi on war crimes charges is his second for a sitting head of state. Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir, who in 2009 was indicted for war crimes, is still wanted by the ICC.
Moreno-Ocampo has accused Gaddafi of ordering his forces to gun down civilians in their homes, at funerals and outside mosques, AFP reports.
"Today, the office of the prosecutor requested the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants," he told reporters in The Hague, where the ICC is based, presenting a 74-page file to back his case.
"Therein it will show that Gaddafi personally ordered attacks on unarmed civilians," he said.
"He shot at demonstrators using live ammunition, using heavy weaponry against … funeral processions and placed snipers to kill those leaving mosques after prayers."
Furthermore, Gaddafi's forces prepared lists with names of alleged dissidents, who were "being arrested, put into prisons in Tripoli, tortured and made to disappear."
"The crimes are crimes against humanity," the ICC chief said.
Saif al-Islam, who Moreno-Ocampo dubbed Gaddafi’s “de-facto prime minister,” has often been named as his father's successor, while Abdullah al-Senussi acts as his “right-hand man.”
Thousands of people have been killed in the Libyan violence and around 750,000 people have fled the country, according to UN figures.
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