The International Criminal Court prosecutor is seeking an arrest warrant for Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi accusing him of crimes against humanity following the ‘pre-determined’ killing of protesters.
ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo is seeking the arrests of Col Gaddafi, his son Saif al-Islam and intelligence chief Abdullah al-Sanussi holding them responsible for “widespread and systematic attacks” on civilians.
Moreno-Ocampo said at the ICC, “The office gathered direct evidence about orders issued by Muammar Gaddafi himself, direct evidence of Saif al-Islam organising the recruitment of mercenaries and direct evidence of the participation of al-Senussi in the attacks against demonstrators”.
He said the office of the prosecutor have evidence of the three named in which they held meetings “to plan the operations” and Gaddafi used his “absolute authority to commit crimes in Libya.”
Libyan Deputy Foreign Minister Khalid Kaim said the ICC was a “baby of the European Union designed for African politicians and leaders” and its practices were “questionable”.
The Libyan government has said that the ICC announcement will be ignored.
UN Security Council referred the violence to the ICC in February.
The ICC has no police force and is reliant on member states to enforce arrests.
Libya is not a member of the ICC and therefore is not obliged to arrest the court’s suspects.
ICC judges must still decide if there is anough evidence to issue warrants for their arrest.