The battle is won, as Libya declares itself free at last

Following nine months of civil war and three days after the death of Gaddafi, transitional leader Mustafa Abdul-Jalil yesterday hailed a new future for the country.

Libyans celebrated, waving the tri-colour flag, as the four-decade rule of the Gaddafi regime officially came to an end.

Mr Abdul-Jalil, giving the keynote address at a mass ceremony in Benghazi yesterday, laid out a vision for the post-Gaddafi future with an Islamist tint.

He told thousands of supporters that Islamic Sharia law would be the “basic source” of legislation in the country and that existing laws that contradict the teachings of Islam would be nullified.

He said new banks would be set up to follow the Islamic banking system, which bans charging interest.

“This revolution was looked after by God to achieve victory,” he told the cheering crowd.

The announcement was clouded, however, by international pressure to explain how Gaddafi had been captured alive days earlier, then ended up dead from a gunshot to his head shortly afterward.

The circumstances of his death are still unclear and, along with the gruesome spectacle of his body laid out on public view in a commercial freezer, is testing the new Libyan leaders’ commitment to the rule of law.

Mr Abdul-Jalil did not mention the events surrounding Gaddafi’s end and called on his people to eschew hatred.

“You should only embrace honesty, patience, and mercy,” he told the crowd at the declaration ceremony in the eastern city of Benghazi, the birthplace of the uprising against Gaddafi. He urged Libyans to reconcile their differences.

In a gesture that showed his own piety, he urged Libyans not to express their joy by firing guns in the air, but rather to chant “Allahu Akbar”, or “God is great”. He then stepped aside from the podium and knelt to offer a brief prayer of thanks.

Mr Abdul-Jalil paid tribute to the Gulf Co-operation Council, a six-nation alliance led by Saudi Arabia, the Arab League and the European Union.

Nato, which aided the anti-Gaddafi fighters with air strikes, had performed its task with “efficiency and professionalism,” he added. He also thanked those who fought and fell in the fight against Gaddafi’s forces. “They are somewhere better than here, with God,” he said.

US president Barack Obama congratulated Libyans on the declaration.

“After four decades of brutal dictatorship and eight months of deadly conflict, the Libyan people can now celebrate their freedom and the beginning of a new era of promise,” he said.

However, just hours before that statement, Defence Secretary Philip Hammond and US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said a full investigation into Gaddafi’s death was necessary.

The 69-year-old Gaddafi was captured wounded, but alive, on Thursday in his home town of Sirte, the last city to fall to revolutionary forces.

Bloody images of Gaddafi being taunted and beaten by his captors have raised questions about whether he was deliberately executed.

People have lined up for days to view the body.

The bodies of Gaddafi’s son Muatassim and his defence minister, Abu Bakr Younis, were also put on display, and people wearing surgical masks have been filing past, photographing the bodies.

The vast majority of Libyans seemed relieved the country’s ruler of 42 years was gone, clearing the way for a new beginning.

“If he [Gaddafi] was taken to court, this would create more chaos, and would encourage his supporters,” said Salah Zlitni, 31, who owns a pizza restaurant in Tripoli. “Now it’s over.”

The declaration of liberation starts the clock on Libya’s transition to democracy. The transitional leadership has said it would declare an interim government within a month and elections for a constitutional assembly within eight months, to be followed by votes for a MPs and a president within a year.