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
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including