Why a trial of Saif al-Islam Qaddafi at the International Criminal Court could be plenty tricky
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If the latest media reports are to be believed, Muammar al-Qaddafi’s most famous son and one-time heir, Saif al-Islam, is thinking about surrendering himself to the International Criminal Court (ICC). In June, the court charged him, alongside his now-deceased father and Libya’s intelligence chief, with war crimes and crimes against humanity. Most accounts now place Saif somewhere in southern Libya or Niger, negotiating with the international court through intermediaries. It’s not clear how serious those negotiations are, but a man who’s just been bombed by NATO, had his father executed, and fled across the desert, may well find a comfortable cell in a quiet Dutch suburb increasingly attractive.
If Saif does manage to get himself to The Hague, he would instantly become the young court’s most famous prisoner. The ICC, which opened its doors in 2002, has struggled to get hold of its most prominent targets, including Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir and Lord’s Resistance Army commander Joseph Kony. So a 39-year old jet-setter who once wrote a London School of Economics (LSE) dissertation on global governance could become a key test case for an international court still trying to prove itself.
For the court, turning precious custody into an actual conviction will not be simple, however. The ICC’s own rules and the weirdness of the Qaddafi regime could haunt international prosecutors.
The prosecution’s first task would be simply holding onto its prize catch. Libya’s new authorities would likely bid to get him back, and the court’s statute gives them that right. The ICC is designed to complement, not supplant, national court systems. A Libyan spokesman recently insisted that Saif should face justice at home. “We will not accept that our sovereignty be violated like that,” he said. “We will put him on trial here.”