Gaddafi’s Son and Brother-In-Law May Surrender
Saif al-Islam Muammar al-Gaddafi, the second son of deceased dictator Muammar Gaddafi, has proposed surrendering to the International Criminal Court for war crimes against humanity, says Reuters.
Along with al-Islam is Abdullah al-Senussi, Gaddafi’s brother-in-law and former intelligence chief to the deposed tyrant.
The men are believed to be hiding near the border of Libya, possibly waiting to disappear into Algeria or Niger. Ever since the toppling, capture, and subsequent killing of Gaddafi, both men have been on the run.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Once Gaddafi and his supporters were forced to flee Tripoli, rumors circulated that al-Islam had been captured or killed. On Aug. 22 he made an appearance at the Rixos hotel, the home to a multitude of foreign journalists, revealing that previous stories of his death had been false.
Al-Islam and al-Senussi are wanted by the Hague-based ICC for their attempted quelling of the Feb. 17 uprising, in which the men are suspected to have used excessive violence and killed civilians.
An ICC spokesman, when asked about the surrender, said, “We don’t have confirmation about this now. We are trying to contact the NTC (Libya’s current ruling government) for more information,” according to CBS.
Conversely, Abdel Majid Mlegta, a representative of the NTC, said “[al-Islam and al-Senussi] are proposing a way to hand themselves over to The Hague,” says CBS.
The only Gaddafi left in Libya, al-Islam could be motivated by the fact that three of his eight siblings have died in their homeland already. The remaining Gaddafis are in Niger.
Weighing the prospects, al-Islam has to consider his father’s fate in contrast to a possible future in prison, but alive.
Al-Islam, although rising to fame (or perhaps notoriety) through his father’s legacy, did not necessarily always support the tyrant politically. Gaddafi’s second son was considered relatively liberal for Libya, championing freedom of speech and other causes.
Al-Islam’s shining moment as a reformer came when he managed to negotiate the lifting of U.S. sanctions on the country in 2004. In exchange, Libya shut down its nuclear program.
Despite political policy disagreements with the regime, al-Islam decided to side wholly with his father’s regime in the face of revolution.
