TRIPOLI, Libya — Revolutionary fighters captured Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s feared intelligence chief on Sunday as the interim government struggled to manage the increasingly thorny quandary of how to get custody of the former dictator’s son from a second armed group that had captured him only the day before.
The military council in the Wadi Shati district said the intelligence chief, Abdullah Senussi, for decades Colonel Qaddafi’s brutal enforcer, had been taken prisoner from his sister’s house deep in the southern desert without resistance. Mr. Senussi, who was married to a sister of Colonel Qaddafi’s wife, was considered one of the regime’s hard-liners who had resisted officials who pushed for reforms. He has been wanted in France since 1999, when a Paris court sentenced him in absentia to life in prison for his role in an attack on a French airliner that killed 170 people in 1989.
His seizure capped a weekend of celebrations across the country over the capture of Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi, one of Colonel Qaddafi’s sons and the heir apparent. But that arrest has proved to be a major distraction for Prime Minister Abdel Rahim el-Keeb as he tries to stitch together a cabinet this week among leaders of competing tribes, cities and rebel fighting groups.
Leaders of the town of Zintan, whose fighters captured Mr. Qaddafi, said Sunday that new conditions would have to be met before they would release their prisoner to the fledgling central government. At first they said they would wait for a new government to form before handing him over, but on Sunday they said they also needed guarantees that the government had installed a working court system, which could take months.
“Zintan has to be sure the courts will be well organized,” said Mussa Grife, a member of the Zintan revolutionary movement’s political committee. “We won’t let him leave until the government establishes a strong legal system. We need to be sure.”
It was not clear whether the Wadi Shati council would make similar demands, and use a high-ranking prisoner as a bargaining chip for influence over the cabinet.
Officials in Tripoli, the capital, insisted that Mr. Qaddafi and Mr. Senussi would be tried in Libya, though the officials said they would cooperate with International Criminal Court prosecutors, who want to ensure that the two are held and tried under international norms.
Mr. Keeb, the prime minister, was huddling with politicians on Sunday, and officials said he was close to delivering a list of cabinet members to the governing Transitional National Council for approval. But he told the council that he needed more time.
Attempts to form a cabinet have been delayed for weeks. Under the Transitional National Council’s charter, Mr. Keeb must announce a cabinet by Tuesday. That cabinet is to govern until the election of a national assembly in eight months. But Mr. Keeb’s choices must be approved by the council, a process that could lead to more wrangling among the competing armed groups.
Zintan’s militia forces were crucial in the taking of Tripoli during the war, but in recent weeks they have refused to obey the interim government’s demands that they withdraw from barricades around the capital and join the national army under a central command.
The assertion of the Zintan forces that they alone could hold Mr. Qaddafi was a direct challenge to Mr. Keeb, who traveled to the town of 50,000 on Saturday night to congratulate the local authorities.
At a news conference with the Zintan leaders in attendance, Mr. Keeb said that Zintan could hold Mr. Qaddafi for the time being, but that Libyan prosecutors and courts were ready to bring him to justice.
“The legal system, which is based on the principles of the new Libya, is now active, and we trust its ability,” Mr. Keeb said. “He will get his day in court, and proper justice will be applied.” Other officials have said Libya wants to show the world its respect for the rule of law and human rights, especially after the killing of Colonel Qaddafi while he was in the custody of another militia force.
Mr. Keeb also said he would insist that the International Criminal Court, which has issued a warrant for Mr. Qaddafi’s arrest for crimes against humanity, allow Libya to try him first. “We trust the world will respect our national interest,” he added.
A representative of the International Criminal Court was expected in Libya on Sunday night or Monday.
The Zintan officials’ insistence that they should decide when to hand over Mr. Qaddafi underscores the infighting that is threatening the interim government before it is even fully formed. The new cabinet would be the second since Tripoli fell over the summer, but the first since Colonel Qaddafi was captured and killed last month.
Source: nytimes.com