 |
| A composite of file pictures shows three of the sons of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi (from left): Saif al-Islam, Mohammed and Saadi |
The National Transitional Council (NTC) late on Wednesday claimed its latest prize—the deposed Libyan leader’s feared son and national security chief Mutassim, who a senior official said they had captured in Sirte.
But once again the claim was unsubstantiated, and the NTC issued a denial the following day.
Mutassim’s arrest would have been a breakthrough and morale boost for the NTC after weeks of fierce resistance by Gaddafi loyalists in Sirte 360km east of Tripoli and the oasis of Bani Walid 170km southeast of the capital.
“It’s very important to bring (Gaddafi and his inner circle) to justice. They committed a lot of war crimes and crimes against humanity,” said NTC military spokesman Abdel Rahman Bussin.
“We are actively looking for them,” he said.
On September 9, Interpol issued a “red notice” for the arrest of Gaddafi, his son Saif al-Islam and his intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi after arrest warrants were issued for the three in June by the International Criminal Court for murder and persecution in Libya’s bloody uprising.
An arrest notice has also been issued for Gaddafi’s son Saadi, who is in Niger, at the request of the new Libyan authorities, for alleged crimes while head of the country’s football federation.
But all of them remain at large, despite separate claims, later disavowed, that three of his sons—Mohamed, Saif al-Islam and Mutassim—had been caught.
Saif, at one time widely viewed as Gaddafi’s heir-apparent, was reported captured by the new Libyan authorities in August, as Tripoli fell to the “rebels,” before he appeared at the Bab al-Aziziya compound, smiling broadly and flashing the V-for-victory sign.
At around the same time, the anti-Gaddafi forces also announced the arrest of Mohamed, the oldest of the former leader’s eight children, but the following day, a senior NTC official said that he had managed to escape.
Several members of the Gaddafi clan, including his daughter Aisha, her brothers Hannibal and Mohamed and their mother Safiya, were given refuge by Libya’s western neighbour Algeria last month for “strictly humanitarian reasons.”
Following the NTC’s denial on Thursday that Mutassim was in custody, Bussin suggested that Gaddafi loyalists were creating smokescreens to help the family evade capture.
“Maybe... it was a strategic rumour spread to fool people and allow him to escape from Sirte,” where Mutassim was thought to have been co-ordinating the resistance.
“It’s the kind of tricks they use,” said Wahid Bushan, who heads the NTC’s local council in Gharyan, south of Tripoli.
“I don’t know about Mutassim, but for Saif al-Islam, for example, they used people wearing rebel uniforms and showed these images to spread confusion among people. These techniques were always used by the (Gaddafi) regime,” he added.
As for Gaddafi himself, Bushan thinks he is probably somewhere in the south of Libya’s vast desert region, where he could easily cross the country’s porous southern border into Niger, Algeria or Chad.
“We are tracking them down there, with specialised people. We will be able to capture him, it’s a question of time. I don’t believe he can sustain this position for long,” he said.