The International Criminal Court (ICC) has ruled that Libya’s Gaddafi-era intelligence chief, Abdullah al-Senussi, can be tried in Libya.
The decision means that the ICC will no longer demand that Mr Senussi be sent to The Hague to stand trial.
The former military intelligence boss was indicted by the ICC in 2011 for war crimes allegedly committed during the uprising against Colonel Gaddafi.
Mr Senussi’s lawyer, Ben Emmerson, described it as a “shocking decision”.
Mr Emmerson said he would be appealing against the ruling.
He said the ICC had evidence “that the Libyan justice system is in a state of collapse and that it is incapable of conducting fair trials of any Gaddafi-era officials”.
The lawyer for the Libyan government welcomed the ICC’s decision.
Philippe Sands said the ruling “vindicates the efforts it [the Libyan government] has made to give effect to the principle of complementarity, which allows Libya to conduct the trial of Mr Senussi if it satisfies the court, as it has done, that it can conduct a fair trial”.
The principle referred to means that the ICC does not carry out proceedings against a suspect if it deems they are receiving a fair trial in a domestic court.
A pre-trial chamber at the ICC decided that “Libya is willing and able genuinely to carry out” investigations into Mr Senussi, the court said in a statement.
france24
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