Saadi Qadhafi extradited to Libya

Saadi Qadhafi, the third son of Libya’s deposed dictator Muammar Qadhafi, was extradited early today from neighbouring Niger back to Libya. According to a statement posted on the government’s official Facebook page, Saadi is currently being held in the high-security Hadaba Prison in Tripoli.

"The Libyan Government thanks the President of the Republic of Niger, Mahamadou Issoufou, we also thank the Niger Government and the people of Niger for their cooperation with the Libyan Government in pledging its commitment to the treatment of the accused on the principles of justice and international norms in dealing with prisoners. God save Libya.”

Unofficial pictures were also released by the government-backed militia holding the businessman and former professional footballer, allegedly showing Saadi dressed in a blue prison uniform having his head shaved. There is a high likelihood that he will face the death penalty.

Libya has been seeking his extradition since he fled to Niger in the wake of the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that ousted his father. Niamey had previously refused to hand over Saadi around the time of the first anniversary of the February uprising because they feared he would be executed if he returned to Libya. A government spokesperson for the Nigerien authorities, Marou Amadou, said that it would only extradite Saadi “to a government which has an independent and impartial justice system”.

Following this request from Tripoli, Niger’s President Mahamadou Issoufou said any extradition requests would be viewed on strict legal merits alone, without referring specifically to the Saadi case. He had originally been granted asylum in November 2011 on humanitarian grounds, shortly after Interpol issued a warrant for his arrest in connection with allegations of forcefully misappropriated property and armed intimidation when he was head of the Libyan Football Federation. As a member of the ICC, Niger was obliged to extradite Qadhafi.

Saadi’s extradition is a real coup for the Libyan authorities. He was one of the most hated figures in the Qadhafi regime and arguably the most disliked of all Qadhafi’s sons. He had a reputation for being exceptionally brutal and is remembered in Benghazi particularly for his bulldozing of the Al-Ahli SC (Benghazi) stadium in an act of revenge after his football team, Al-Ahli SC (Tripoli), lost to the opposing side.

There is likely to be ongoing jubilation in Libya at the news. Congress is congratulating the families of the martyrs and the revolutionaries and is thanking Niger. This will serve as a reminder to a deeply troubled country of why they launched the uprising in the first place. 

For more news and expert analysis about Libya, please see Libya Focus and Libya Politics & Security.

© 2014 Menas Associates

Former Qadhafi intelligence chief 'charged' in Mauritania

According to Mauritanian officials, former Libyan intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi has been charged with illegal entry. Senussi, who fled Libya after the fall of Colonel Muammar Qadhafi, was held at Nouakchott airport after flying in from Morocco in March.

Both Libya and the International Criminal Court (ICC) want him extradited to face trial for crimes against humanity. But Muritanian officials say he is facing trial for using false documents to travel. A source quoted by AFP news agency said Senussi has been detained in a special prison cell ahead of the trial.

Libya's interim government has said it wants Senussi back on Libyan soil, where he can stand trial for numerous allegations of murder and human rights abuses while he was Qadhafi's head of intelligence.

Senussi, who is Qadhafi's brother-in-law, was once the late leader's closets aide. Nicknamed “the butcher” he was reportedly involved in a massacre in 1996 of more than 1,000 inmates at the Abu Salim prison in Tripoli.

In March, following Senussi's arrest, Libya's Deputy Prime Minister Mustafa Abushagur said Mauritania had agreed to hand him over. Mauritanian officials, however, said no decision had been made on his extradition.

Interpol has issued an international "red notice" call for his arrest at Libya's request. Senussi is also wanted on a 2011 ICC arrest warrant in connection with the violent suppression of protests during last year's Libyan uprising. He is also wanted by the French authorities after a court there sentenced him to life in prison for his involvement in a 1989 attack on a French plane that killed 170 people.

Sources: BBC News, Reuters, Business Week

For more news and expert analysis about Libya, please see Libya Focus and Libya Politics & Security.

Libya: INTERPOL arrest warrants issued for former regime officials

International arrest warrants – also known as INTERPOL Red Notices - have been issued for a number of senior officials from the former Qadhafi regime. They include:

Senussi al-Wazri (a.k.a. Al-Senussi Alozyre) (b.1948) who was both a former director general of public security (i.e. interior minister) and notorious head of security in Benghazi. He is wanted by Libya for “counterfeiting, forgery, kidnapping, life and health”. He was allegedly involved in the December 1993 kidnapping in Cairo of the leading opposition figure Mansour al-Kikhiya who was allegedly returned to Libya where he was executed.

Nasser al-Mabrouk Abdallah al-Riyani (b.1951) who was appointed in April 2009 as the deputy director general of public security who is also wanted for “kidnapping, life and health”. He is alleged to have been involved in torture and in the Abu Selim prison massacre, and was one of the key individuals within the Leader's entourage who was virtually adopted as a youth into Qadhafi's service.

Colonel Bashir Sahel Bashir, once Colonel Mu'ammar Qadhafi's chief of staff and trusted aide, who since 2005 was the head of the Libya Africa Portfolio for Investment (LAPI) (a.k.a Libyan Fund for Investment in Africa) It is hoped that he could provide details of missing Libyan cash and assets worth an estimated US$7 billion. LAPI invested some of Libya's oil wealth in a multitude of companies in both Libya and Sub-Saharan Africa. Foreign Minister Ashour Ben Khayal, among many others, is anxious to locate the funds and return them to Libya. While Reuters reported that Bashir – who originally comes from the border area and speaks fluent French - was issued with a Nigerien passport in December 2011, there are also rumours that he may be in Paris.

For more news and expert analysis about Libya, please see Libya Focus and Libya Politics & Security.

© 2012 Menas Associates

Egypt's former finance minister sentenced in absentia

The former finance minister Youssef Boutros Ghali has been sentenced in absentia to 30 years in jail on corruption charges and fined LE70 million — around US$11 million. In recent months he has been dividing his time between London and Lebanon, his wife's country of birth, and is on Interpol's wanted list.

He was convicted of squandering US$6 million in public funds and abuse of other funds that he had access to. He was also found guilty of using six luxury limousines for personal use which he took from the customs pound.

It is an extraordinary fall from grace for the man the foreign business and international financial community knew as YBG. They held him in the highest regard as a truly world class minister. He was happy to answer journalists' questions by SMS. He came from the most prominent Coptic political family in Egypt — his great grandfather had been prime minister under the British and his uncle a foreign minister of Egypt and UN secretary general. He was also chair of the IMF's policy advisory committee.

For more news and expert analysis about Egypt, please see Egypt Politics & Security.

© 2011 Menas Associates

Nigeria: James Ibori awaits extradition to the UK

Dubai's Court of Cassation has ruled that former Nigerian state governor James Ibori can be extradited to the UK to face corruption charges. Nigeria's anti-corruption agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has accused Ibori of stealing in excess of $290 million from state funds while working as the governor of Delta State. The British authorities believe Ibori deposited most of the funds within UK banks.

Ibori, who was detained in May by the global police agency Interpol, denies the charges. The Dubai court ruled that there were no grounds to block the extradition. In 2007, a London court froze UK assets worth in the region of $35 million, believed to have belonged to Ibori but by that point he had already left the country. Ibori, a senior political figure in Nigeria's ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP), was first apprehended in Nigeria in December 2007.

In 2009, Ibori was cleared of 170 charges of corruption, by a court in Asaba, who had found no clear evidence to convict him.

Source: BBC News

For more news and expert analysis about Nigeria, please see Nigeria Focus and Nigeria Politics & Security.