BENGHAZI: The International Criminal Court has evidence Muammar Gaddafi's government planned to put down protests by killing civilians before the uprising in Libya broke out, the ICC's prosecutor said Tuesday. The United Nations Security Council, which on March 17 sanctioned airstrikes on Libyan government forces to prevent them killing civilians, in February referred Libya to the ICC, the world's first permanent war crimes court. Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo is to report back to the UN on May 4, and is then expected to request arrest warrants. “We have evidence that after the Tunisia and Egypt conflicts, people in the (Gaddafi) regime were planning how to control demonstrations in Libya,” Moreno-Ocampo told Reuters in an interview. “The shootings of civilians was a pre-determined plan,” he said, adding the plan started to be developed in January. The court prosecutor wants to speak to former Libyan foreign minister Moussa Koussa who defected to Britain last week, saying he did so because of attacks on civilians by Gaddafi's forces. Koussa's defection would be taken into consideration in the investigation into Gaddafi, his sons and aides, Moreno-Ocampo said, hinting others inside the government might follow suit.
