THE HAGUE: Libya has enough evidence to charge Muammar Gaddafi’s son Seif Al Islam with crimes against humanity, lawyers told the International Criminal Court yesterday amid a dispute over where he should face justice.

The ICC wants Seif, the only son of the slain Libyan leader in custody, to be tried in The Hague, but Libya’s post-revolutionary authorities insist he should stand trial in his home country.

A probe “has already produced considerable results,” Libya lawyer Philippe Sands told a two-day hearing on Seif’s fate. “There is a wide range of evidence that will constitute an indictment the same as that presented by the ICC’s prosecutor.”

The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Seif, 40, and Gaddafi’s former spymaster Abdullah Senussi, 63, in June 2011 for crimes against humanity allegedly committed while trying to crush the revolt against the veteran leader’s iron-fisted rule. ICC defence lawyers argued that Seif would not get a fair trial in Libya, where he could face the death penalty

Libya’s bid and arguments to have the case against Seif quashed in the Hague-based court was “like a house of cards,” said Melinda Taylor, representing Seif. “When examined in detail it collapses upon itself,” she said.

Taylor  accused Libya’s lawyers of misleading the ICC, for instance by saying a possible death sentence for Gaddafi could be commuted.

Australian lawyer Taylor cited a law passed by Libya’s post-revolutionary National Transitional Council which said “no child of Kadhafi will ever benefit from leniency.” If convicted, “Mr Gaddafi will be executed by hanging,” Taylor told judges.

But ICC prosecutors said Libya should be given more time for the case. “We see that the case being presented appears to be on track,” prosecutor Sara Criscitelli told the ICC’s three-judge bench. “We believe that Libya is interested in prosecuting this offender... we are confident that Libya needs a bit more time to sort itself out.”

Evidence against Seif includes how he allegedly told security forces during a television broadcast to use violence shortly after the outbreak of the uprising in mid-February last year, Libya’s lawyer Sands said.

AFP