ZINTAN, Libya — Moammar Khadafy’s former heir apparent, Seif al-Islam, was captured by revolutionary fighters in the southern desert Saturday just over a month after his father was killed, setting off joyous celebrations across Libya and closing the door on the possibility that the fugitive son could stoke further insurrection.
Seif al-Islam — who has undergone a transformation from a voice of reform in an eccentric and reviled regime to one of Interpol’s most-wanted — now faces the prospect of trial before an international or Libyan court to answer for the alleged crimes of his late father’s four-decade rule over the oil-rich North African nation.
Thunderous celebratory gunfire shook the Libyan capital of Tripoli and other cities after Libyan officials said Seif al-Islam, who has been charged by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, had been detained wearing traditional Tuareg clothing about 30 miles west of the town of Obari in an area that borders Niger, Mali and Algeria.
A photograph was circulated showing the 39-year-old son, who had been the last wanted Khadafy family member to remain at large, in custody, sitting by a bed and holding up three bandaged fingers as a guard looks on. Osama Juwaid, a spokesman for the fighters from Zintan who made the arrest, said it was an old injury caused by a NATO airstrike and the detainee was otherwise in good health.
“I am hopeful that the capture of Khadafy’s son is the beginning of a chapter of transparency and democracy and freedom,” said Libya’s interim prime minister, Abdurrahim el-Keib, at a news conference in the western mountain town of Zintan, where Seif al-Islam was taken after his capture.
It was unclear what would happen next, with the international community urging Libyan authorities to ensure he is treated humanely and to cooperate with the ICC on bringing him to trial.
ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo told The Associated Press that he will travel to Libya soon for talks with the country’s transitional government on where the trial will take place. Ocampo said that although national governments have the first right to try their own citizens for war crimes, his primary goal was to make sure Seif al-Islam receives a fair trial.
“The good news is that Seif al-Islam is arrested, he is alive, and now he will face justice,” Ocampo said in an interview in The Hague, Netherlands. “Where and how, we will discuss it.”
Seif al-Islam’s capture leaves only former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senoussi wanted by the ICC, which indicted the two men along with Khadafy in June for unleashing a campaign of murder and torture to suppress the uprising that broke out in mid-February.
Voice of reform turned reactionary
Seif al-Islam Khadafy, 39, was considered Moammar Khadafy’s heir apparent. Educated in Britain and fluent in English, Seif al-Islam found favor among Western intellectuals, exhibited his paintings at galleries around the world and won plaudits from world leaders and rights campaigners with talk of democracy and development. But then he staunchly supported his father in his brutal crackdown on rebels.
