Libyans set trial date for Saif al-Islam Gaddafi

Late Libyan ruler Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam will go on trial in Libya next month, prosecutors said.

Announcing the trial date, spokesman Taha Nasser Baara said: “The prosecutor general’s office has completed its investigation into the crimes committed by Saif al-Islam from the start of the revolution on 15 February [2011] and has prepared the charge sheet.”

Mr Baara said the charges would be “approved by the prosecutor general in the coming days and a date set for the September trial opening”.

Saif al-Islam will have to respond to charges which include financial corruption, murder and rape, according to a statement from justice minister Ali Ashour in April.

Saif al-Islam’s lawyers fear he will not get a fair trial in Libya.

Before he was captured in November by militias, the International Criminal Court (ICC) had issued a warrant for his arrest for crimes against humanity during the uprising that brought down his father. Libya’s new rulers are keen to try Gaddafi’s family members and loyalists at home, but human rights activists worry that a weak central government means legal proceedings will not meet international standards.

Libya has resisted attempts to transfer Saif al-Islam to the Hague-based ICC. Libya is not a member of the court, but the ICC was granted jurisdiction by the UN Security Council last 
November.