Qaddafi’s son would be hanged in Libya, says lawyer

THE HAGUE: Muammar Qaddafi’s son Seif Al-Islam without a doubt would get a death sentence if tried in Libya, his lawyer told the Hague-based International Criminal Court yesterday.
“Although the Libyan government has danced around the issue, let’s be very clear: if convicted (in Libya) Mr Qaddafi will be hanged,” Melinda Taylor, a court-appointed lawyer, told judges amid a dispute on where Seif should face justice.
Separately, the US President Barack Obama’s anti-terror adviser, John Brennan, was in Tripoli yesterday to discuss investigations into a deadly attack on US diplomats in Libya last month, an official said.
Tripoli tightened security as Brennan headed into meetings with Muhammad Megaryef, president of the Libyan national assembly, as well as foreign and interior ministry officials, said the Libyan official.
His visit comes almost one month after the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on the US mission in the eastern city of Benghazi in which four Americans, including ambassador Chris Stevens, were killed.
It follows the first visit by FBI agents to the crime scene in the eastern city of Benghazi, cradle of the 2011 revolt that toppled and killed long-time dictator Muammar Qaddafi.
The Obama administration has come under fire from Republican foes for the contradictory reports which have come out about the attack, amid allegations of security failures.
In Washington, State Department officials faced a grilling yesterday at a congressional hearing into the Benghazi assault, which has become fodder for the US presidential campaign.
Four US officials will brief lawmakers at the hastily-arranged hearing of the Oversight and Government Reform committee — the main watchdog in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.
In a dramatic, new account, two State Department officials have described a relentless attack in which dozens of armed men invaded the US consulate in Benghazi, setting it on fire and hunting through the building for staff.
There had been no warning that an attack was planned, and in the hours before the streets outside the compound had been calm, they said on a conference call with reporters, asking to remain anonymous.
The new account contradicts initial reports by State Department officials which said it was a “spontaneous” attack sparked by a protest against an anti-Islam film.
“There was no actionable intelligence of any planned or imminent attack,” one top State Department official said Tuesday.
Stevens held a series of meetings and stayed in the compound that day as it was the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. He walked his last guest, a Turkish diplomat, to the compound gates.
“They say goodbye, they’re out in the streets. Everything is calm, at 8:30 p.m. there’s nothing unusual, there has been nothing unusual during the day at all,” a second official said.