TRIPOLI — A Libyan court on Tuesday sentenced Muammar Gaddafi's most prominent son, Saif Al-Islam, and eight others to death for war crimes including killings of protesters during the 2011 revolution that ended his father's rule. The Gaddafi regime officials sentenced to die by firing squad included former intelligence chief Abdullah Al-Senussi and ex-prime minister Baghdadi Al-Mahmoudi, Sadiq Al-Sur, chief investigator at the Tripoli state prosecutor's office, told a televised news conference. The trial outcome drew swift criticism abroad, with Human Rights Watch and a prominent international lawyer saying it was riddled with legal flaws and carried out amid widespread lawlessness undermining the credibility of the judiciary. Eight ex-officials received life sentences and seven jail terms of 12 years each, Sadiq said. Four of the 37 defendants were acquitted, others got shorter jail terms. The verdict on Saif was passed in absentia in Tripoli since he has been held since 2011 by a former rebel group in the mountainous Zintan region. Factional disorder and conflict now plagues Libya. The sentences can be appealed and must be confirmed by the Supreme Court. Human Rights Watch (HRW) said defense lawyers lacked full and timely access to case files and several had been unable to meet with clients in private while two quit after receiving threats. “There are serious questions about whether judges and prosecutors can be truly independent where utter lawlessness prevails,” Joe Stork, HRW's deputy Middle East and North Africa director, said in an emailed statement. The International Criminal Court (ICC) had wanted to try Saif and Senussi in The Hague but in 2013 granted Libya the right to do so at home despite doubts about the impartiality and competence of its judicial system. John Jones, a British lawyer hired to represent Saif before the ICC, said a “show trial” led to the death sentences. — Reuters
