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Paul Hackett / Reuters
Abdullah Al-Senussi, head of the Libyan Intelligence Service speaks to the media in Tripoli on Aug. 21, 2011.
The arrest of Moammar Gadhafi's ex-spy chief, Abdullah al-Senussi, in Mauritania has set off a three-way tussle for his extradition.
Libya has formally requested that Mauritania hand over Senussi, who arrived there Saturday on an overnight flight.
But Senussi, who for decades before the late dictator's fall inspired fear and hatred in ordinary Libyans, also is sought by the Hague-based International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity during last year's conflict.
And France -- confirming it played a role in his arrest -- stressed his alleged role in the 1989 bombing of an airliner over Niger in which 54 French nationals died.
"Today we confirm the news of the arrest of Abdullah al-Senussi," Libyan government spokesman Nasser al-Manee told a news conference in Tripoli.
"He was arrested this morning in Nouakchott airport and there was a young man with him. We think it is his son," he said, confirming a Mauritanian state news agency report that Senussi had been arrested with a false Malian passport arriving from Casablanca, Morocco.
France, which led Western backing for the popular uprising that toppled Gaddafi, said it had cooperated with Mauritanian authorities over the arrest and that it would be sending an arrest warrant to Mauritania.
A statement from President Nicolas Sarkozy's office noted Senussi had been sentenced in absentia for the 1989 bombing of a UTA airliner, in which 170 people were killed. Families of the victims immediately demanded he face justice in France.
An ICC spokesman said an ICC arrest warrant for Senussi also remained valid and requested that it be implemented.
But Libya's National Transitional Council was adamant.
"We insist that Senussi is extradited to Libya," NTC spokesman Mohammed al-Harizy said. "There are demands from the ICC and France to get Senussi, but the priority is to deliver Senussi to Libya."
While Mauritania is not a signatory to the Rome Statute governing the ICC, rights groups Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International both said Mauritania was bound by the U.N. Security Council to fully cooperate with the ICC.
Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement that the Libyan justice system in any case "remains weak and unable to conduct effective investigations into alleged crimes."
Britain, along with France one of the key Western backers of the insurgency, also cited the need for Mauritania to cooperate with the ICC in a statement attributed to Foreign Secretary William Hague.
Msnbc.com staff contributed to this report from Reuters.
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Leave a Comment:
does'nt matter who gets him as long as he hangs!
Imagine being so popular that everyone wants you (for a neck tie party that is). In this case, it would appear that this guy is going to face instant Karma.
The reality is that if he is handed over to the Libyans, he will not live long enough to make it to trial. The best course of action would seem to be to turn him over to the ICC, although since he has already been convicted in France, they would seem to have the strongest claim. Also, since Mauritania is not a signatory to the Rome convention, they may feel more inclined to turn him over to either France or Libya rather than bow to the ICC. I do not see how the UN security council could tell a sovereign nation to turn over anyone to the ICC if that nation is not a signatory to the treaty that created and controls the ICC. That would seem like overreaching on the part of the UN security council. I also do not see how the US, which has veto power in the security council, could support such a demand since the US is also not a signatory to the Rome Convention that created the ICC. It would be highly hypocritical for the US administration to support such a demand from the UN. Personally, I say turn him over to the Libyans and let the people he abused and the families of those whose murders he was complicit in deal with him as they wish.
Please U.S., don't get involved in this three-way tussle.We've already got our hands full.
Off with his head!
That's one ugly sonofagun--both inside and out.
Seems pretty straightforward: deliver him to the ICC, and invite observers from France and Libya, and have the ICC keep in mind the French sentence as they try him.
Let him swing...
Of course everybody wants him. The man knows a lot. Sarkozy would love to get his hands on him so as to keep him quiet. Lots of people did business on the under with Qaddafi and this man knows all of them.
Off with his head! off with his head!
With so many wanting a pound of flesh, regretfully there won't be enough of him to share all around.
Libyan Swinger!
I suggest that Mr. Cub T does not know the meaning of the work 'Karma'. In case he does not know, it means 'Fate'. However, I pretty much agree with most of what he has stated.
Having lived in Libya, graduating from High School there before Quadaffi (correct spelling), Idris Senoussi was King. His regime was pretty totalitarian but not like Quadaffi's.
Since Senoussi, a member of a different tribe yet one of the tribe of the former King, I say turn him over to the Libyans. Sure he'll swing, if he lives that long, and quickly. Allow the Libyan peoples to try a person who was a terrorist in his own country. He'll get the death penalty. This will also allow the Libyan people to show that they are capable of having a trial and have a sense of justice.
As for you, Mikerdffd, your comments have absolutely no business on ths thread,. Go troll somewhere else.
Fantastic! Since France caught him, let them have him! Unless of course, the Hague has precedence? Any way you slice it, he's a gonner!!!
And 9/11/2001.
They got the jack$#$ Let Libya have him. Let him rot in one of their nice prisions, just like he & Khaddafi' hench men did to so many. No sympathy for this guy. Hope he gets what he deserves. By the way, ARE YOU WATCHING MRS ASSAD....Eva Braun (Hitler's girlfriend) died in the bunker with Adolf when the allies bombed the crap out of Berlin....The Italians hung Mussolini's girlfriend along with Mussolini during WW II....the Romanians hung their communist leader AND his wife after the fall of the Soviet Union...Hey MRS ASSAD, if I were you, I'd dump the guy and head for Russia or Iran....you know,,,someplace friendly...