Libya urged Niger on Saturday to extradite former Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi’s son Al-Saadi, saying his call for Libyans to prepare for a “coming uprising” threatened bilateral ties.
Niger responded that it could not hand over Al-Saadi, who fled south to the West African state in September last year as Libyan forces gain the upper hand over his father’s forces, because he would face execution in Libya.
However, officials in Libya and Niger said that the Niger authorities had placed tighter restrictions on Al-Saadi’s movements and agreed that Libyan Minister of Foreign Affairs Ashour Bin Hayal would meet his Niger counterpart to discuss the issue.
In a telephone call to al-Arabiya TV late on Friday, Al-Saadi said that he was in regular contact with people in Libya who were unhappy with the authorities put in place after the ousting and killing of his father.
“The council demands that the Niger government extradite Saadi and those who are with him to the Libyan authorities as soon as possible to maintain the relationship with the Libyan people,” Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) spokesman Mohammed al-Harizy said, reading out a statement to reporters.
“They should follow the Algerian government which prevented Qaddafi’s daughter from making statements or causing any trouble from their land,” he said, adding that NTC Chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil had called Niger’s president to discuss Al-Saadi.
Algeria ordered members of Qaddafi’s family in exile on its territory to stay out of politics, after Qaddafi’s daughter, Ayesha, angered the Libyan government last year by telling the media her father was still fighting to hold onto power.
The Libyan News Agency LANA said Niger Minister of Foreign Affairs Bazoum Mohamed and his Libyan counterpart had spoken by telephone and quoted Bin Hayal as saying Al-Saadi’s comments “threaten the bilateral relationship between the two countries.”
Authorities in Niger said that their position on any future extradition of Al-Saadi had not changed.
“We will hand over Saadi Qaddafi to a government which has an independent and impartial justice system,” government spokesman Marou Amadou told a news conference.
“But we cannot hand over someone to a place where he could face the death penalty or where he is not likely to have a trial worthy of the name,” Amadou added.
He acknowledged that Al-Saadi’s comments violated a condition of his stay in Niger not to engage in subversion against the Libyan authorities.
Police sources in Niger said that supervision of Al-Saadi’s residence in the capital, Niamey, had been stepped up, but that he had not been formally arrested.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
The US government has banned US government personnel in China, as well as family members and contractors with security clearances, from any romantic or sexual relationships with Chinese citizens, The Associated Press (AP) has learned. Four people with direct knowledge of the matter told the AP about the policy, which was put into effect by departing US ambassador Nicholas Burns in January shortly before he left China. The people would speak only on condition of anonymity to discuss details of a confidential directive. Although some US agencies already had strict rules on such relationships, a blanket “nonfraternization” policy, as it is known, has
OPTIONS: Asked if one potential avenue to a third term was having J.D. Vance run for the top job and then pass the baton to him, Trump said: ‘That’s one,’ among others US President Donald Trump on Sunday that “I’m not joking” about trying to serve a third term, the clearest indication he is considering ways to breach a constitutional barrier against continuing to lead the country after his second term ends at the beginning of 2029. “There are methods which you could do it,” Trump said in a telephone interview with NBC News from Mar-a-Lago, his private club. He elaborated later to reporters on Air Force One from Florida to Washington that “I have had more people ask me to have a third term, which in a way is a fourth term
RSS