Saif al-Islam, the second son of the late Colonel Moammar Gadhafi, was arrested in the desert of southern Libya on Saturday from where it is believed he was trying to escape to neighboring Niger, according to media reports.
Saif al-Islam was arrested while travelling in a small convoy and did not resist arrest. Saif al-Islam had been on the run ever since Tripoli fell to anti-Gadhafi forces in August.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Moammar Gadhafi, Saif al-Islam, and Gadhafi’s brother-in-law Abdullah Al-Senussi in June for crimes against humanity.
President of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute of the ICC, Christian Wenaweser, welcomed news of the arrest from New York on Saturday.
He also said that while Libya retains primary jurisdiction over crimes committed in its territory, since an ICC case was initiated against Saif Al-Islam, ICC rules need to be followed.
“It must be ensured that Saif Al-Islam is tried in a court of law and in accordance with international standards. Should the Libyan authorities wish to try him in Libya, they can make the case before the Court that their national judicial system is willing and able to do so in an independent and impartial manner,” Wenaweser said according to a published statement.
The Libyan interim government has said he will be tried in Libya under Libyan law.
Saif al-Islam, which translates as “Sword of Islam,” was born in 1972. He was been described as his father’s favorite son and the most likely successor to his father. Educated at the London School of Economics, Saif al-Islam was seen in the West as a potential democratic force in Libya.
But when the armed revolution broke out earlier this year, Saif al-Islam proved that his loyalty lied more with his family than with reform of the country. He appeared frequently on state television making defiant speeches. In one, he called upon Libyans to fight until the last woman and man.
The arrest of Saif al-Islam marks a major victory for Libya’s interim government. Crowds of people were seen on the streets of Tripoli on Saturday celebrating the news.
Following the ousting of the Gadhafi regime, after 40 years of dictatorship, Libya is slowly struggling to recover. The Libyan economy relies heavily on oil exports and under Gadhafi some 80 percent of government revenues came from oil. The industry was severely disrupted by months of fighting. The interim government earlier announced that it had now restored about 40 percent of the country’s total oil production.
