Interpol joins search for fugitive Gaddafis

AS REBEL leaders in Libya said they had formed a new unit to track down Muammar Gaddafi, Interpol joined the hunt yesterday, saying it had issued arrest warrants for Gaddafi, his son Saif al-Islam and intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi. All are wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for suspected crimes against humanity.

“Gaddafi is a fugitive whose country of nationality and the ICC want arrested and held accountable for the serious criminal charges that have been brought against him,” said Ronald Noble, secretary general of the Lyons-based police organisation.

Niger, under pressure to hand over former Gaddafi officials suspected of human rights abuses, said it would respect its commitments to the ICC if Gaddafi or his sons entered the country, after at least two senior generals and his security chief arrived there earlier this week.

“We are signatories of the (ICC’s) Rome statute, so they know what they are exposed to if they come,” a spokesman for president Mahamadou Issoufou said.