Aisha Gaddafi, the daughter of Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, said that asking her father to leave office and the North African state was an insult to all citizens of the country. She is now being threatened in neighboring Algeria after taking refuge., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
Gaddafi daughter presses UN to probe father's death
08 Feb 2012 19:55
Reuters
* Aisha Gaddafi says wants full investigation of killing
* Expresses concern about impartiality of UN investigators
* Circumstances of Muammar Gaddafi's death still unclear
By Christian Lowe
ALGIERS, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Muammar Gaddafi's daughter has expressed concern that a United Nations commission looking into human rights violations during the Libya conflict is not trying to find out who killed her father.
The circumstances of Gaddafi's killing on Oct. 20 last year remain unclear. Footage of his last moments, bloodied and dazed as his captors dragged him along a road, marked the grisly success of the revolt against his rule, even though many Libyans said they were glad to see the end of a violent dictator.
In a letter sent to the chairman of the U.N.'s commission of inquiry on Libya, a lawyer acting for Gaddafi's daughter Aisha questioned whether investigators were meeting their obligation to probe violations by both sides in the conflict.
The letter said Aisha Gaddafi expected the commission to fully explore the killing of her father, and her brother Motassim, who was also killed after he was captured.
"These murders were witnessed by the whole world and have been roundly condemned by those who champion the rule of law. It is inconceivable, therefore, that the commission of inquiry should refuse to investigate these matters," the letter said.
The lawyer, Nick Kaufman, said the U.N. investigators working for the commission had conducted dozens of interviews but did not seem interested in testimony from Aisha Gaddafi or other family members.
"You will appreciate my concern that the apparent lack of will to involve my clients in the investigative work of your commission may be seen as lacking impartiality," said the letter, a copy of which was seen by Reuters.
Aisha Gaddafi, her mother Safiya, her brothers Hannibal and Mohammed and other members of the family, fled Libya around the time rebel forces took control of the capital in August. They have since been in neighbouring Algeria.
Gaddafi's daughter, a trained lawyer who was part of the defence team of executed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, has unsuccessfully asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague to investigate her father's death.
She has also applied to the ICC to let her submit information on behalf of another brother, Saif al-Islam, but the court rejected her application.
Saif al-Islam, the subject of an ICC arrest warrant on rape and murder charges, has been held in the Libyan town of Zintan since he was captured in the Sahara desert in November, disguised as a Bedouin tribesman. (Editing by Tim Pearce
Libyan diplomat dies after torture: rights group
Fri, Feb 3 2012
By Oliver Holmes
TRIPOLI (Reuters) - A Libyan diplomat who served as ambassador to France for Muammar Gaddafi died from torture within a day of being detained by a militia from Zintan, Human Rights Watch said in a statement on Friday.
Zintan is the town where the late Libyan ruler's most prominent son, Saif al-Islam, is being held, and the former diplomat's death has reinforced concerns for the son's safety.
A preliminary autopsy report said Omar Brebesh, who was detained on January 19 in the capital Tripoli and whose body appeared in hospital the next day 100 km (60 miles) southwest in Zintan, had multiple injuries and fractured ribs.
The report is the latest in a series of allegations of torture at the hands of Libya's myriad armed militias who fought to topple Gaddafi and now run prisons around the country.
Libya's ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) says Saif al-Islam should be tried at home and would be given a fair hearing. The International Criminal Court has reserved the right to insist that he be sent to The Hague.
"Human Rights Watch read a report by the judicial police in Tripoli, which said that Brebesh had died from torture and that an unnamed suspect had confessed to killing him," the statement said, adding that photos of Brebesh's body show welts, cuts, and the apparent removal of toenails.
The militia accused of torturing Brebesh, al-Shohada Ashura, was not immediately available for comment on Friday.
Brebesh, 62, served in the Libyan embassy to France from 2004 to 2008, first as cultural attache, and then as acting ambassador for the last nine months of his tour.
The diplomat returned to Libya to work as a lawyer at the ministry of Foreign Affairs under Gaddafi but then continued working for the post-Gaddafi NTC government after the civil war.
INVESTIGATION OPENED
Brebesh's son Ziad, told Human Right Watch that his father voluntarily submitted to an investigation by the Zintan Al-Shohada Ashura militia at their base in the Tripoli neighborhood of Crimea. The next day the family heard that Brebesh's body had appeared at a hospital in Zintan.
"These abusive militias will keep torturing people until they are held to account. Libya's leaders should show the political will to prosecute people who commit serious crimes, regardless of their role in the uprising," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch.
The statement welcomed reports that a Zintan prosecutor has opened an investigation into Brebesh's death.
On Thursday, the Ministry of Justice held a ceremony to mark the handover of a prison in the capital from a Tripoli-based militia to the government. It was the seventh prison to be taken back by the government, which promises that the country's prisons, full of men who fought for Gaddafi, will gradually be transferred from militia control over the next few months.
According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, Libya currently has about 8,500 detainees in roughly 60 facilities, most of them run by militias with informal relationships to the state.
On January 26, humanitarian group Medecins Sans Frontieres said it had stopped its work in detention centers in the city of Misrata because its medical staff were being asked to patch up detainees mid-way through torture sessions so they could go back for more abuse.
(Editing by Michael Roddy)
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