According to a source within Libya's National Transitional Council, London-educated Saif, 39, is terrified of receiving the same treatment as his father who met a grisly death last week at the hands of vengeful Libyan fighters.
Saif went on the run at the time of his father's capture and has indicated he is ready to surrender to justice like former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi, NTC officials have said.
Both men are the subject of arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court, where officials have not been able to confirm any approach.
They face charges of crimes against humanity for their response to 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.
More...
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.

According a source within the NTC ruling council Saif is terrified of meeting the same grisly fate as befell his father
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.
He was reported by an aide to be fearing for his life when he fled Bani Walid, and if he has seen the gruesome video footage of his father's capture, he is likely to be under few illusions about how he might be treated if he remains in Libya.
'Saif is concerned about his safety,' the NTC source said. 'He believes handing himself over is the best option for him.'
The source said Saif wanted the involvement of a third country - possibly Algeria or Tunisia - in a deal to get him to The Hague.
'He wants to be sent an aircraft,' the source said by telephone from Libya. 'He wants assurances.'
MY BOSS SHOWED NO FEAR: GADDAFI'S DRIVER TELLS OF FINAL MOMENTS
Colonel Gaddafi's driver has spoken of the dictator's final moments, claiming his boss showed no sign of fear before he was captured by rebels.
'Everything was exploding,' said Huneish Nasr. 'The revolutionaries were coming for us. He wasn't scared but he didn't seem to know what to do. It was the only time I ever saw him like that.'
Moments later the revolutionaries overran their position and Nasr was knocked to the ground with a rifle butt.
His final glimpse of Gaddafi was of him being dragged from a drainpipe and then surrounded by rebels who started to rain blows down on him.
Nasr and Gaddafi's head of security, Mansour Dhao, are believed to be the only survivors from the guards who accompanied the Libyan leader during his final resistance in Sirte.
They spent the five days before Gaddafi's death moving from house to house.
The former Libyan leader, Nasr said, appeared unable to understand how he had been reduced to such a position: 'He was strange. He was always standing still and looking to the west. I didn't see fear in him.'
Following his capture, Nasr was taken to a makeshift prison in Misrata.
'If any of the other close staff are still alive, I don't know where they are or what happened to them,' he said.
'may be somewhere with the revolutionaries, or they may be dead.'
Still dressed in the blood-stained purple shirt he wore on the day Gaddafi was killed, Nasr continued: 'I was with him for 30 years and I swear by God that I never saw any bad behaviour in him.
'He was always just my boss. I believed them when they said we are fighting bad people.'
Saif's whereabouts and intentions had been tracked by monitoring satellite phone calls, the source said, together with information contained in intelligence cables.
The NTC lacks the logistical capabilities to intercept fugitives deep in the desert. It has asked its Nato allies for further assistance as the Western mission winds up following the death of the ousted leader.
Nato officials have made clear, however, that they are keen to cut back their commitment now.
Saif had been seen by analysts as his father's heir-apparent and a potential reformer, but his bloodthirsty comments about the rebels this year forced a rethink.
Gaddafi loyalist security officials in Bani Walid this week told how the son called his father frequently by satellite phone and became increasingly afraid of being hit by incoming fire.
'He was afraid of mortars,' said al-Senussi Sharif al-Senussi, a lieutenant in Gaddafi's army who was also part of Saif al-Islam's personal security team.
'He seemed confused.'

Mr Senussi, who is not related to Gaddafi's former security chief, said that Saif's convoy was hit by a Nato air strike as he fled Bani Walid but he escaped alive.
Saif is the last remaining member of the Gaddafi family currently at a large.
It emerged to day that family members currently hiding in Algeria plan to file a war-crimes complaint against Nato for the role they believe the international military alliance played in the former leader's death,
Marcel Ceccaldi, a French lawyer who previously worked for Gaddafi regime and now represents his family, said the complaint would be filed with the International Criminal Court in the Hague because the family believes a Nato strike on Kadafi's convoy led to his brutal death.
Libyan authorities have said he likely died in crossfire. Others, including the international rights advocacy group Human Rights Watch, believe he was executed.
But Gaddafi's family is convinced that he died as a result of Nato aircraft firing on his convoy as it fled Sirte.
'The willful killing [of someone protected by the Geneva Convention] is defined as a war crime by Article 8 of the ICC's Rome Statute,' Ceccaldi said.
'Gaddafi's homicide shows that the goal of [Nato] member states was not to protect civilians but to overthrow the regime.'
It was unclear when the complaint would be filed, but Ceccaldi said the lawsuit would target Nato executive bodies and leaders of the alliance's member states.
Dailymail
No comments:
Post a Comment