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Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of Libya’s former dictator, Muammar Gaddafi, has been sentenced to death by a court in Tripoli.

Saif was condemned to death along with eight other figures from the Gaddafi administration, including the former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi and Gaddafi’s last prime minister, Al-Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi.

Saif is accused of recruiting mercenaries, attacking civilian targets from the air, forming armed groups and shooting into crowds of demonstrators.

Among the charges he was convicted of were incitement to murder and rape.The mass trial, which opened in Tripoli in April last year, has been mired in controversy after human rights groups and the international criminal court questioned its standards.