Residents of Zintan call for Gadhafi's son to be tried in Libya

(10 Oct 2012)
1. Various of mountainside with writing in stones on slope reading: (Arabic) "Zintan the Jihad"
2. Various of traffic in Zintan
3. Wide exterior of Zintan local council building
4. Various of Zintan vegetable market
5. Wide exterior of Zintan's supermarket
6. Sign on wall, reading: (Arabic) "Main market of Zintan"
7. Various of Zintan residents buying groceries in supermarket
8. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Ali Muftah, Zintan resident:
"The trial of Seif al-Islam in Libya is firstly because of the crimes that he did to the Libyan people, killing, stealing, destruction and the cause that he made in the country."
9. Various of people shopping in supermarket
10. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Abdulnabi Kamoun, Zintan resident:
"He should be tried in his country, in Libya. He committed crimes against the Libyan people and he should be tried in Libya, in front of the Libyan people. I refuse the trial in Hague. We demand to try him in Libya, in front of the Libyan people, against the crime he made in Benghazi, Misrata and Zintan."
11. Various of Zintan residents buying groceries in supermarket
STORYLINE:
Residents of the Libyan town of Zintan - where Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, the son and one-time heir-apparent of late Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, is being held - called on Wednesday for him to be tried in Libya.
A hearing has been taking place in The Hague that will ultimately decide whether Gadhafi is tried in his homeland - where he could face the death penalty - or at the International Criminal Court (ICC), where the maximum sentence is life imprisonment.
"He should be tried in his country, in Libya," said local resident, Abdulnabi Kamoun. "He committed crimes against the Libyan people and he should be tried in Libya, in front of the Libyan people."
One of Gadhafi's court-funded defence lawyers, told judges at the ICC on Wednesday that its reputation would be damaged if it allowed Libya to put him on trial.
The defence said that any trial in Libya would be "not motivated by a desire for justice but a desire for revenge and there is no right for revenge under international law."
Gadhafi was indicted last year (2011) by ICC prosecutors on charges of murdering and persecuting protesters in the early days of the popular uprising that ultimately toppled his father's regime.
He is being detained by an armed militia in Zintan, and Libya's new rulers say they want to move him to Tripoli and put him on trial.
The 10-year-old Hague-based tribunal is a court of last resort, meaning it only takes on cases from countries where authorities are unwilling or unable to prosecute defendants.
The Gadhafi case is a test of that principle.
Judges have to weigh the desire of Libya's new rulers to prosecute him against their ability to do so in a nation still in post-conflict turmoil where the rule of law is being slowly rebuilt after more than four decades of neglect under the Gadhafi regime.
Judges are expected to take weeks or months to weigh their decision.
Find out more about AP Archive: www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter: / ap_archive
Facebook: / aparchives ​​
Instagram: / apnews
You can license this story through AP Archive: www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...