by Ali Al-Bassam
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East
TRIPOLI, Libya — Since Thursday, four delegates of the International Criminal Court who were on a mission to visit Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi have been detained in the western mountain town of Zintan by Libyan authorities.
Libya claims that one of the delegates, an Australian lawyer named Melinda Taylor, part of the four-member delegation, was attempting to pass “dangerous documents” to Al-Islam Gaddafi, son of the slain former president Muammar Gaddafi. Ahmed Al-Jehani, a Libyan lawyer and envoy to the ICC, said that authorities seized Taylor’s camera and recording device prior to her meeting with Al-Islam. Once inside, Libyan authorities claim she shared documents with Al-Islam that were potentially harmful to Libyan national security. Al-Jehani also said that Taylor shared information and drawings which could jeopardize the safety of Libyans living abroad.
Jehani said that the documents included letters from Mohammed Ismail, a former right hand man to Al-Islam who has been in hiding since the Libyan revolution, and blank documents signed by Al-Islam. He denied that Taylor and her colleagues were spending time in a prison cell, saying that she “is under house arrest, not detained in prison. Jehani also said it is likely that she will be released soon.
Sang-Hyun Song, President of the International War Crimes Court, demanded the delegates’ immediate release, saying that as members of the court’s staff, the delegates hold immunity when on an official ICC mission. The ICC recently sent representatives to Tripoli to secure the release of the detained delegates. Efforts to free the delegates have been futile, as authorities in Zintan will not allow contact between ICC representatives and the detained delegates without further questioning.
The ICC named the three other staff members who were detained with Taylor: Helene Assaf, a Lebanese ICC translator and interpreter who is also being held as an “accomplice”; Esteban Peralta Losilla, chief of the Counsel Support Section at the ICC; and Alexander Khodakov, a Russian career diplomat and External Relations and Cooperation Senior Adviser at the registry of the ICC.
Al-Islam is currently being held by the Zintan brigade. Under international law, Libya has the right to try him on its own soil. Prior to the overthrow of Gaddafi, the ICC indicted Al-Islam and will not drop his case until it is certain that the Libyan government is capable of giving him a fair trial.
In June 2011, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Al-Islam, and Abdullah Senussi, one of Gaddafi’s former spies, for crimes against humanity. The ICC prefers to have the two tried in The Hague, but the new Libyan regime refuses to deliver them to the ICC. The government would prefer to have them tried in Libya. Libyan lawyers criticized the ICC’s jurisdiction, saying it is only meant to be complementary to a nation state’s jurisdiction, only acting when the member state is unwilling to do so.
For further information, please see:
News Limited — Aussie Lawyer Accused of Spying — 11 June 2012
Reuters UK — ICC Sends Team to Libya After Delegation Detained — 11 June 2012
Philadelphia Inquirer — War Crimes Court Says 4 Staff Held in Libya — 10 June 2012
Seattle Post-Intelligencer — War Crimes Court: 4 Staffers Held in Libya — 9 June 2012
Yahoo! News — Libya ‘Arrests’ Australian War Crimes Court Lawyer — 9 June 2012
