OnIslam.net

TRIPOLI – Libya’s once feared former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi was arrested on Sunday, November 20, at a remote desert homestead, drawing the final scene in the fallen regime of Muammar Gaddafi.

"Abdullah al-Senussi was arrested in Al-Guira region in the south of the country," a National Transitional Council official, who declined to be identified, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

A military commander in the eastern city of Benghazi said Senussi was arrested at a house belonging to his sister near the town of Birak, about 500 km (300 miles) south of Tripoli, in the same region Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam was seized on Saturday.

NTC spokesman Abdul Hafez Ghoga later confirmed that Senussi, who is Saif al-Islam's uncle by marriage, had been captured.

Fighters who intercepted Saif al-Islam on a desert road in the early hours of Saturday said they believed one of his companions was also a nephew of Senussi, whose wife is a sister of Gaddafi's second wife Safiya.

It was not immediately clear if the arrest was linked to that of Saif al-Islam, though there has been speculation since the fall of Tripoli three months ago that the pair were hiding together.

"We had doubts about his presence in the region," said Bashir Uweidat, who heads the Wadi Shati military council.

“He was arrested in his sister's home in Al-Guira and did not put up any resistance.”

"He will be handed over to the competent authorities," he said, adding that Senussi had some personal weapons in his possession.

Senussi's capture was also announced by an officer in Benghazi as NTC officials were meeting with the military.

"The terrorist, the assassin, Abdullah al-Senussi has been arrested," said the officer amid thunderous applause.

Defense Minister Jallal al-Digheily, who was at the meeting with hundreds of army officers, branded the capture a "victory."

"We thank Allah for this victory," he said.

Trial     

With Senussi and Saif al-Islam wanted at the International Criminal Court, NTC officials have said they can convince the ICC to let them try both men in Libya.

Senussi, 62, is the brother-in-law and former right-hand man of Gaddafi, who was arrested and killed last month.

Among other old wounds, Senussi is suspected of a key role in the killing of more than 1,200 inmates at Tripoli's Abu Salim prison in 1996.

Many of the dead were members of Islamist groups which are expected to be a major political force in a democratic Libya.

Senussi's name has been also linked with the Lockerbie bombing of 1988.

In 1999 a Paris court sentenced him in absentia to life for his alleged involvement in an attack on a French UTA airliner a decade earlier that killed 170 people.

Like Gaddafi, who was captured and killed on the coast a month ago, Saif al-Islam and Senussi were indicted this year by the International Criminal Court for alleged plans to kill protesters after the Arab Spring revolt erupted in February.

While the ICC, backed by a UN resolution, can demand Libya hand over the prisoners, many Libyans are keen to see them tried for alleged crimes committed over decades, well beyond the scope of the ICC charges relating to this year only.  

And many also want them hanged, something barred at The Hague.