TRIPOLI: A Libyan court indicted around 30 senior Muammar Gaddafi aides, including the dictator's son Saif al-Islam, on Thursday for a raft of alleged offences during the 2011 revolt, prosecutors said.

“The court ordered they stand trial on the main charges against them dealing with the repression of the 2011 revolt,” prosecutors' office spokesman Seddik al-Sour said after the hearing.

“The trial date will be set by the Tripoli criminal court,” Sour told a press conference.

The charges pressed against the accused include murder, kidnapping, complicity in incitement to rape, plunder, sabotage, embezzlement of public funds and acts harmful to national unity.

Only a dozen of the accused appeared in court, said a lawyer who was present at the hearing, held under tight security at a Tripoli court and prison building.

Sour said the law did not require that the defendants all be in court to hear the indictment.

The fact that “some of the defendants would have needed exceptional security measures to appear prompted the court to decide to notify them of its decision after the hearing”.

“But the presence of all the accused will be obligatory at the trial hearings before the criminal court,” Sour added.