Qaddafi's son vows to return with new rebellion
Saadi Qaddafi, one of the sons of Libya’s slain dictator Moamer Qaddafi, told Al-Arabiya television by telephone from neighbouring Niger that a nationwide rebellion is brewing against the country’s new rulers.
“I will return to Libya at any time,” said Saadi from the country where he took refuge after the fall of Tripoli, which ended his father’s 42-year iron-fisted rule of Libya. Saadi added that 70% of Libyans are not satisfied with the current situation and that gangs rule the country. “There is a rebellion that is going on day after day, and there will be a rebellion in the entire country,” he said.
The ruling National Transitional Council (NTC), which took over after his father’s overthrow last year, responded with a renewed call to the authorities in Niamey, Niger to extradite Saadi. Council spokesman Mohamed Nasr al-Harizi warned that the “thuwar (former rebel militias) have not given up their arms and are ready to fight any unwise force.”
Libya’s official news agency LANA reported that Foreign Minister Ashur bin Khayyal denounced Saadi’s remarks in a telephone conversation with his Niger counterpart Mohamed Bazum.
“This declaration (by Saadi) is harmful to the relations between the two countries,” Khayyal said. The “Niger government must take tough measures against Saadi, including handing him over to Libyan authorities to judge him for the crimes committed against the Libyan people.”
Niger said that Saadi’s comments were “subversive and unfortunate” but insisted that it will not extradite him to Libya. “It is with great bitterness that I say that Saadi Qaddafi, in predicting an imminent uprising in Libya, has contravened the terms and conditions under which we took him in,” said Niger government spokesman Marou Amadou. But, he added, “our position is simple, we cannot deliver someone to a place where he risks being put to death and where he is not likely to have a dignified trial.”
Amadou said that the surveillance of Saadi had been greatly strengthened, and the government was considering sanctions against those who were guarding him. Saadi, 38, took refuge last September in Niger, which granted it on “humanitarian grounds,” according to Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou.
Libya’s new rulers accuse Saadi of having “taken goods by force and intimidation when he led the Libyan football federation,” according to international police organisation Interpol, which has issued a “red notice” for his arrest.
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