TRIPOLI: A Libyan court has sentenced a son and eight aides of slain leader Muammar Qadhafi to death for crimes during the 2011 uprising, in a verdict denounced by rights campaigners.
The United Nations also said it was “deeply disturbed” by the outcome and criticised the trial for failing to meet international standards.
Seif al Islam, the strongman’s one-time heir apparent who is also wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), was tried in his absence because he is held by a militia opposed to the Tripoli authorities.
Former intelligence chief Abdullah Senussi and prime minister Al Baghdadi al Mahmudi were also sentenced to death, although they can appeal to the supreme court.
The 37 defendants were charged with crimes including murder and complicity in incitement to rape.
Libya has been wracked by conflict since Qadhafi’s overthrow, with rival governments and powerful militias battling to control key cities and the country’s oil riches.
The trial, which opened in the capital in April last year, has been dogged by criticism from rights watchdogs and an unresolved dispute with the ICC in The Hague over jurisdiction in the case of Seif al Islam.
Rights groups say the trial missed an opportunity to expose the crimes of the regime.
Amnesty International called the death sentences “appalling”.
“Instead of helping to establish the truth and ensuring accountability for serious violations during the 2011 armed conflict, this trial exposes the weakness of a criminal justice system which is hanging on by a thread in a war-torn country with no central authority,” Amnesty’s Philip Luther said.
Human Rights Watch’s Joe Stork said the trial was “plagued by persistent, credible allegations of fair trial breaches that warrant independent and impartial judicial review”.
The militia holding Seif al Islam in Zintan is aligned with the internationally recognised government which fled to the remote east last August when a rival militia alliance seized Tripoli and set up its own administration.
Prosecutor General Siddick al Sour acknowledged that there was no prospect of Seif al Islam facing the court’s sentence any time soon, but said that was a matter for politicians.
“The court pronounced sentence and has nothing to do with the political conflict,” he said.
Seif al Islam’s sole appearances before the court were by video link and there had been none since May last year.
The UN Security Council referred the conflict in Libya to the ICC in February 2011. Seif al Islam is wanted by the ICC on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Twenty-nine other defendants, including Mr Senussi and Mr Mahmudi, were in court for Tuesday’s sentencing. Mr Senussi has been in custody since September 2012 when he was handed over by Mauritania, where he had sought refuge after the regime’s overthrow.
“He has from day one had no effective legal representation, no access to his family and the outside world, and no ability to prepare any defence against the charges,” his international legal team said.
His 17-year-old daughter Salma said her father had been denied a fair trial.
“Even if my father did something wrong, I would ask them to put him in a real court in a place with rule of law,” she told AFP from her home in Britain.
The court sentenced eight other defendants to life in prison, seven to 12 years, four to 10 years, three to six years and one to five years in prison.
Four were acquitted and one was ordered confined to a psychiatric hospital.
Masood Haider adds from United Nations: The trial did not meet international standards on a number of fronts a UN press statement said.
“Concerns over the trial include the fact that several defendants were absent for a number of sessions. The evidence of criminal conduct was largely attributed to the defendants in general, with little effort to establish individual criminal responsibility,” said Claudio Cordone, Director of the Human Rights, Transitional Justice and Rule of Law Division of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL).
The court also announced that Seif al Islam and six others had been tried in absentia. A press release issued by the UNSMIL pointed out that the nine defendants had been sentenced to death by firing squad.
Seif al Islam, the first defendant on the list of 37, was connected by video link from Zintan only to four of the 24 sessions. Libya has not complied with the ICC order to surrender him.
“The prosecution did not present any witnesses or documents in court, confining itself entirely to the written evidence available in the case file, thus missing a historic opportunity to construct a public record of crimes committed by the former regime – a key step in Libya’s transitional justice process,” Mr Cordone said.
During their pre-trial detention, he added, defendants were denied access to lawyers and family for prolonged periods, and some reported that they were beaten or otherwise ill-treated, but the UNSMIL is not aware of any investigation into these allegations.
Defence lawyers said they faced challenges in meeting their clients privately or accessing the full case file, some saying they received threats and that witnesses were reluctant to appear in court due to fears about their safety. The court did not respond to defence counsel requests to examine prosecution witnesses.
“International standards require that death sentences may only be imposed after proceedings that meet the highest level of respect for fair trial standards. The United Nations opposes the imposition of the death penalty as a matter of principle,” Mr Cordone said.
Many of these concerns were echoed in Geneva by Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
“Among the key shortcomings is the failure to establish individual criminal responsibility in relation to specific crimes,” she said.
Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2015
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