Qaddafi’s Killers Will Face Trial, New Government Says

The leaders of Libya’s National Transition Council say that the people responsible for Muammar Qaddafi’s death will be prosecuted:

Libya’s ruling National Transition Council pledged on Thursday to bring the killers of deposed leader Muammar Qaddafi to trial, Al Arabiya TV said.

“With regards to Qaddafi, we do not wait for anybody to tell us [what to do],” NTC vice chairman Abdel Hafiz Ghoga.

“We had already launched an investigation. We have issued a code of ethics in handling of prisoners of war. I am sure that was an individual act and not an act of revolutionaries or the national army,” the top interim official said.

“Whoever is responsible for that (Qaddafi’s killing) will be judged and given a fair trial.”

Global disquiet has grown over how Qaddafi met his end at the hands of NTC fighters who hauled him out of a culvert where he was hiding following a NATO air strike on Oct. 20.

Mobile phone videos show him alive at the time of his capture.

In addition to Qaddafi’s killing by his capturers, there are videos on YouTube that indicate that the former leader may have been sodomized.

Another video shows Qaddafi’s son, Mutassim, captured, still alive and smoking a cigarette before his killing.

If this happens I’d actually consider it a positive step. Whether they can actually ever track the people responsible down is, of course, another story.

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Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. legion says:

    “Whoever is responsible for that (Qaddafi’s killing) will be judged and given a fair trial.”

    That’s the key part there… There’ll be no shortage of guys claiming to be the one who offed Qaddaffi to pull chicks and get free drinks, but in the end, nobody knows who killed him and I doubt anyone ever will. This is a pantomime the incipient government feels it ought to go through in order to look “law and order”, but I cannot imagine it ever leading anywhere.

  2. Dave Schuler says:

    And, presumably, they won’t rest until the real killer is found.