A court in the Libyan capital has sentenced Muammar Gaddafi’s most prominent son, Saif al-Islam to death.
Islam was sentenced to death in absentia for suppressing peaceful protests during the country’s 2011 revolution that ended his father’s rule.
Islam was sentenced alongside other his father’s former chief spy Abdullah al-Senussi who will face the death squad. Libya’s former Prime minister Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi was also sentenced.
Senussi and Gaddafi are both wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Since 2011 Saif Gaddafi has been held by a militia in Zintan region, allied with Libya’s internationally recognised government in Tobruk, that opposes the regime in Tripoli.
Also sentenced to death was former Libyan intelligence chief Abdullah Senussi, the senior Gaddafi’s brother-in-law. Senussi and Gaddafi are both wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Members of the ousted regime have been accused of crimes including illegal attacks against civilians in their homes and public places, the use of live ammunition against demonstrators, placing snipers outside mosques and firing heavy weapons at funeral processions.
