Gaddafi‘s son seeks aircraft to surrender

Saif al-Islam, Gaddafi's son

Gaddafi‘s son seeks aircraft to surrender

A source with Libya’s National Transitional Council has said that Muammar Gaddafi's fugitive son Saif al-Islam wants an aircraft to take him out of Libya's southern desert so he can turn himself in to The Hague war crimes court.

A fearful Saif al-Islam, 39, went on the run at about the time his father met a grisly death a week ago, apparently at the hands of vengeful Libyan fighters.

He has indicated he is ready to surrender to justice, as has ex-intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi, NTC officials have said.

Arrest warrants

Both men are the subject of arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court, on charges of crimes against humanity, for their roles in February’s uprising.

Conflicting reports of Saif al-Islam's whereabouts have circulated since he vanished from the Gaddafi stronghold of Bani Walid in the north of the country, with some 
accounts putting him, and Senussi, in Niger.

The NTC source said Saif al-Islam had not left Libya and was being sheltered by a prominent figure among the nomadic Tuareg people of the desert, whom he had supported financially in the past. The rugged and empty area close to the borders of Niger and Algeria has offered an escape route to others in his family.
However, under ICC indictment, Saif al-Islam would find it harder than his relatives to secure a safe haven abroad.

NP/Ehimen/Ekata