Pay row delays transfer of Qaddafi son to Tripoli

Saif al-Islam, the son of Libya’s dead dictator Muammar Qaddafi, has not been transferred to Tripoli because the ex-rebels holding him have not been paid, Libya’s envoy to the International Criminal Court said on Monday.

“The failure of the National Transitional Council to fulfill its promise to pay the salaries of the thuwar (revolutionaries) of Zintan for six months’ work, for an amount of not more than 1.7 million dinars ($1.36 million), led them to cancel Seif al-Islam’s transfer to prison in Tripoli,” Ahmed al-Jehani told AFP.

Jehani denied that this sum of money represented “compensation” for the transfer of Qaddafi’s son.

“It is a normal demand. This is just the salary of the thuwar for their work in recent months,” he said.

“Initially the NTC said they were ready to pay this sum. But when the time came, they failed to meet their commitments and said: ‘It’s only possible to pay half the amount’,” Jehani added.

Seif, 39, has been in custody in the town of Zintan 180 kilometers (112 miles) southwest of Tripoli since his arrest last November 19, in the wake of the uprising that toppled his father’s rule after more than 40 years in power.

Both Seif and his late father’s spymaster, Abdullah Senussi, are wanted by The Hague-based ICC for crimes against humanity committed in trying to put down last year’s bloody revolt.

Libya has been at loggerheads with the ICC over who has the right to bring the two former regime figures to justice.