OnIslam.net

THE HAGUE – Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and top officials are facing arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity over his deadly crackdown on anti-regime protestors.

"We have been collecting evidence about crimes against humanity committed in Libya," ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Tuesday, May 3.

Moreno-Ocampo said that there are reasonable grounds for issuing arrest warrants against Gaddafi and top officials for crimes against humanity.

"We have security forces shooting civilians at demonstrations and evidence of security forces arresting people in different cities, including Tripoli, even today, because they think these people are not loyal."

Moreno-Ocampo also reported a "massive arrest of people who are not considered loyal.

"In Libya it is illegal to challenge the story. They are arresting people who talk to journalists, and then they are torturing them," he added.

Although names of those involved in the warrants have not been disclosed, the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television said the warrants could include Gaddafi himself and his son Saif al-Islam.

Among those also targeted are former foreign minister Moussa Koussa who defected to Britain and Abu Zeyd Omar Dorda, chief of the External Security Organization.

Moreno-Ocampo is due to brief the UN Security Council on Wednesday on his investigation into alleged abuses in Libya, where peaceful protests have escalated into open conflict between Gaddafi’s regime and opposition groups.

The probe was ordered by the UN Security Council when it passed resolutions in February allowing military action to protect civilians from pro-Gaddafi troops.

The ICC prosecutor said he had informed the UN council that prosecutors would present evidence in coming weeks for a judge to decide whether cases should be pursued.

Between one and five cases will be presented, Moreno-Ocampo said.

"We are still defining who are the most responsible according to the evidence.

"I will inform the Security Council that we are ready, we will present the case. They can plan in advance how the warrants will be executed."

Partial

Gaddafi’s regime rejected the ICC prosecutor’s accusations, saying the allegations reflet a partial position.

"Any decision or any conclusion can Ocampo draw out of his visit to Benghazi and to Egypt will be just one party review or one party position," Khalid Kaim Libyan Deputy Foreign Minister, said, Al Jazeera reported.

"Of course, since we are not party of the ICC, we cannot invite Ocampo but instead of that we can invite another fact finding mission from the [UN] Security Council."

But the ICC prosecutor rejected Gaddafi regime’s claims, saying his report also included cases in the opposition-held city of Benghazi of “people attacking Africans because they were thinking these were mercenaries."

This investigation is also being pursued, he noted.

"We are impartial. The international court is intervening in Libya because we have to protect civilians."

Gaddafi has been facing his worst political crisis in his 42-year rule after thousands of Libyans took up arms for his ouster.