TRIPOLI: Human Rights Watch called on Libyan authorities yesterday to provide proper defence counsel to slain dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s son and top aides to ensure they receive a fair trial.
The New York-based watchdog said that during visits by its staff last month, both Seif Al Islam Gaddafi and former spy chief Abdullah Senussi had complained that they had no representation at all during interrogations and pre-trial hearings in their prosecution for gross abuses during the 2011 uprising.
Former premiers Al Baghdadi Al Mahmudi and Bouzid Dorda said they did have lawyers but that they had been unable to meet them in private to prepare their defence and had been denied access to the evidence against them.
“The Libyan government should make greater efforts to ensure these detained former officials have adequate legal counsel and the opportunity to defend themselves fairly before a judge,” said HRW Middle East and North Africa deputy director Nadim Houry. “The prosecution of these men will be no more credible than a kangaroo court if the authorities fail to provide these men with basic due process rights.”
HRW called on Libyan authorities to investigate allegations by Dorda that he had been beaten and wounded in his prison cell.
The four are among 37 former Gaddafi regime officials who are to stand trial on charges including murder, kidnapping, complicity in incitement to rape, plunder and sabotage.
AFP
