Gadhafi's son to be tried in Libya

ZINTAN, Libya (AP):

Libya's new leaders said yesterday they will try Moammar Gadhafi's son at home and not hand him over to the International Criminal Court where he is charged with crimes against humanity.

The government also announced the capture of the toppled regime's intelligence minister, who is also wanted by the court.

In one of several emerging complications, however, the former rebel faction that captured Seif al-Islam Gadhafi a day earlier is refusing to deliver him to national authorities in Tripoli, raising concern over whether he will get a proper trial and demonstrating the interim leaders' weak hold over their fractured nation.

In the capital, Information Minister Mahmoud Shammam said ex-Intelligence Minister Abdullah al-Senoussi was captured alive yesterday by revolutionary fighters from a southern region called Fazan, not far from where Gadhafi's son was seized on Saturday while trying to flee to neighbouring Niger.

Speaking earlier in the day, before al-Senoussi's capture, the information minister said Seif al-Islam, the ousted Libyan leader's one-time heir apparent, must be tried in Libya even though the country's new leaders have yet to establish a court system.

"It is only fair for the Libyan people that he is tried here. ... Seif al-Islam committed crimes against the Libyan people," Shammam told The Associated Press.

"The ICC is just a secondary court, and the people of Libya will not allow Seif al-Islam to be tried outside," Shammam said.

The ICC indicted the two men along with Gadhafi in June for unleashing a campaign of murder and torture to suppress the uprising against the Gadhafi regime that broke out in mid-February.