TRIPOLI, Libya — The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor sought arrest warrants Monday for Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, his son and the country’s intelligence chief for authorizing the killing of civilians in a crackdown on anti-government rebels. Gadhafi’s government denied the allegations.
The call for the inquest was the first such action in the Netherlands-based court linked to the Arab uprisings. It opened another potential front against Gadhafi’s regime.
The international warrants could further isolate Gadhafi and his inner circle and potentially complicate the options for a negotiated settlement. But they also could harden Gadhafi’s resolve to stand and fight, since the legal action has been seen in Libya as giving NATO more justification to go after him.
Because the United Nations Security Council ordered the ICC investigation, U.N. member states would be obliged to arrest him if he ventured into their territory.
Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said he was seeking warrants against Gadhafi, his son, Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, and intelligence chief Abdullah al-Sanoussi for ordering, planning and participating in illegal attacks. Moreno-Ocampo said he had evidence that Gadhafi’s forces attacked civilians in their homes, shot at demonstrators with live ammunition, shelled funeral processions and deployed snipers to kill people leaving mosques.
Libyan spokesman Moussa Ibrahim told reporters in Tripoli that the regime would pay no attention to arrest warrants that could be issued, saying the prosecutor relied on faulty media reports and “reached incoherent conclusions.”
Also Monday, officials tied to Gadhafi’s government threatened to post “human shields” at telecommunications sites under threat of NATO bombing.
The warning came a day after Gen. David Richards, Britain’s chief of the defense staff was quoted as saying that NATO would have to broaden its bombing campaign to include infrastructure targets in Libya to prevent Gadhafi from “clinging to power.”
Mohammed Almaremi, the chief of one of Libya’s two cellphone companies, said that 20,000 employees of Libyana, one of the companies, would disperse to telecommunications sites along with 20,000 members of their families, and that they would remain there as long as the bombing continued.
“We will be human shields to face any aggression,” he said.
Both cellphone companies are controlled by Seif al-Islam Gadhafi.
Ahmed ben Ayad, head of the Libyan telecommunications authority, said NATO attacks had already destroyed large parts of the country’s telecommunications network, disrupting the working of hospitals, schools and other civilian enterprises.
Libyan TV said NATO airstrikes hit Tajoura, a neighborhood in Tripoli, and Zawiya, about 30 miles west of the capital. State TV said a number of people were killed and wounded. It did not elaborate.
At least three explosions believed caused by NATO strikes shook windows around the Libyan capital. It was not immediately clear what was targeted, but a government spokesman said he believed the jets were aiming for Gadhafi’s compound.
Meanwhile, the rebel forces appeared to have expanded their hold on Misrata, the only major opposition stronghold in western Libya.
In another development, Ibrahim, the Libyan spokesman, said late Monday that four reporters held for the past few weeks by the Libyan government will face trial and likely be released. The identities of the reporters were not immediately available, but Ibrahim said they included at least two Americans and a Spaniard.
Among the journalists missing in Libya and thought to be in government custody are James Foley, a photojournalist working for GlobalPost, a Boston-based news agency; Clare Morgana Gillis, who was covering the fighting for The Atlantic and USA Today; and Manu Brabo, a Spanish photojournalist. They were captured April 5.
The New York Times contributed to this report.
