Libyan court sentences Gaddafi son Saif, eight other ex-officials to death

[IceWizard]

Tue Jul 28, 2015 6:24am EDT

TRIPOLI (Reuters) -
A Libyan court passed a death sentence in absentia on Muammar Gaddafi's most prominent son, Saif al-Islam, on Tuesday for war crimes and acts to crush peaceful protests during the country's 2011 revolution that ended his father's rule.

The court also sentenced to death by firing
squad eight other former Gaddafi regime
officials including his former intelligence chief
Abdullah al-Senussi and ex-prime minister
Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi, on the same charges,
said Sadiq al-Sur, chief investigator at the Tripoli state prosecutor's office.

Eight other ex-officials received life sentences
and seven were given jail terms of 12 years
each, he told a news conference carried by al-
Nabaa television. Four were acquitted. All but Saif al-Islam are in judicial custody.

The verdict on al-Islam was passed in absentia
in Tripoli since he has been held for four years
by a former rebel group in the Zintan region
beyond central government control.

The trial began in April 2014 before fighting
between rival factions in Tripoli ripped Libya
apart in a power struggle which has produced
two governments competing for central
authority. The sentences can be appealed and must be confirmed by Libya's highest court.

The International Criminal Court and rights groups say they worry about the fairness and
competence of Libya's judicial system, although it won the right in 2013 to try Senussi at home instead of at the ICC in The Hague.

(This version of the story corrects that total of
nine, not eight, ex-officials were sentenced to
death.)

(Reporting by Omar Fahmy, Ahmed Elumami
and Ulf Laessing; Writing by Ulf Laessing;
Editing by Mark Heinrich)