Muammar Qaddafi's Son Saif al-Islam Captured in Libya

In this Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2011 file photo, Muammar Qaddafi's son Seif al-Islam makes a victory sign as he appears at the Rixos hotel in Tripoli, Libya. A Libyan commander told reporters Saturday, Nov. 19, 2011 that Seif al-Islam Gadhafi has been arrested in south Libya. (AP/File)

TRIPOLI, Libya – The rebels who captured Muammar Qaddafi's son and one-time heir apparent say they will hold him until a court system is set up in Libya and are demanding that he be tried inside the country.

Rebels from the western mountain town of Zintan captured Saif al-Islam Saturday in the southern Libyan desert, raising questions about whether they will turn him over to the new transitional government in Tripoli that took power after Qaddafi fell or to the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands, which wants to try him on charges of crimes against humanity.

The head of Zintan's military council, Col. Mohammed al-Khabash, said Sunday that Saif al-Islam will be held in Zintan until a court system is established in Libya.

Saif al-Islam — the only wanted member of the ousted ruling family to remain at large — was captured as he traveled with aides in a convoy in Libya's southern desert, Libyan officials said Saturday. Thunderous celebratory gunfire shook the Libyan capital as the news spread.

A spokesman for the Libyan fighters who captured him said Saif al-Islam was detained about 30 miles west of the town of Obari with two aides as he was trying to flee to neighboring Niger. But the country's acting justice minister later said the convoy's destination was not confirmed.

ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo told The Associated Press that he will travel to Libya next week for talks with the country's transitional government on where the trial will take place. Ocampo said that while national governments have the first right to try their own citizens for war crimes, he wants to make sure Saif al-Islam has a fair trial.

"The good news is that Saif al-Islam is arrested, he is alive, and now he will face justice," Ocampo said in an interview in The Hague. "Where and how, we will discuss it."

Saif al-Islam Qaddafi, at 39 the oldest of seven children of Moammar and Safiya Qaddafi, had long drawn Western favor in by touting himself as a liberalizing reformer in the autocratic regime but then staunchly backed his father in his brutal crackdown on rebels in the regime's final days.

He had gone underground after Tripoli fell to revolutionary forces and issued audio recordings to try to rally support for his father.

His capture just over a month after his father was killed leaves only former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senoussi wanted by the ICC, which indicted the three men for in June for unleashing a campaign of murder and torture to suppress the uprising against the Qaddafi regime that broke out in mid-February.

"This is the day of victory, this is the day of liberation, finally the son of the tyrant has been captured," said Mohammed Ali, an engineer, as he celebrated on Tripoli's Martyrs' Square. "Now we are free, now we are free, God is Great."

Libyan state TV posted a photograph purportedly of Saif al-Islam in custody. He is sitting by a bed and holding up three bandaged fingers as a guard looks on, although it could not independently be confirmed where or when the picture was taken or how he was injured.

The murky circumstances surrounding the deaths of Qaddafi and another son Muatassim, and the decision to lay their bodies out for public viewing drew widespread criticism and raised questions about the commitment of Libya's new rulers to respecting human rights.

Marek Marczynski of Amnesty International urged the governing National Transitional Council to transfer Saif al-Islam to the ICC base in the Netherlands as soon as possible.

"The ICC has an arrest warrant out for him and that is the correct thing to do. He must be brought before a judge as soon as possible," he said. "It matters for the victims. What they need to see is true justice. They need to know the truth about what happened."

Interim Justice Minister Mohammed al-Alagi told The Associated Press that Saif al-Islam was detained deep in Libya's desert Friday night by revolutionary forces from the mountain town of Zintan who had been tracking him for days.

Saif al-Islam was being held in Zintan but would be transported to Tripoli soon, according to al-Alagi.

A spokesman for the Zintan brigades, Bashir al-Tlayeb, who first announced the capture at a press conference in Tripoli, said the NTC, which took over governing the country after Qaddafi was ousted, would decide where Saif al-Islam would be tried.

"Saif al-Islam was caught with two aides who were trying to smuggle him into Niger," al-Tlayeb said, adding that he had no information about al-Senoussi's whereabouts.

The justice minister, however, said Saif al-Islam was captured closer to the Algerian border and the convoy's destination was not known.

The White House said it was aware of the reports but had no immediate comment.

The International Criminal Court had earlier said that it was in indirect negotiations with a son of the late Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi about his possible surrender for trial.

ICC prosecutor Ocampo said jurisdiction should not be hard to determine.

"The rules are, primacy for the national authorities, depending on if they have a case," he said.

But he added that judges at the ICC would have to formally approve a transfer of venue, under international law.

Libya's Information Minister Mahmoud Shammam said the NTC had not taken an official position yet, but in his personal view, Saif al-Islam "is an outlaw and should be tried in front of the Libyan Court, by Libyan people and by Libyan justice."

The international community said the treatment of Saif al-Islam would be an important test for the role of rule of law in post-Qaddafi and key to reconciliation efforts, regardless of where he is tried.

"The Libyan authorities should now ensure that Saif al-Islam is brought to justice in accordance with the principles of due process and in full cooperation with the International Criminal Court," the European Union said in a statement.