Gaddafi’s son Seif Al-Islam captured by Zintan militia

 This photo allegedly shows Seif Al-Islam Gaddafi after his capture Seif Al-Islam, ousted Libyan Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's son has been arrested in south Libya. He told a Reuters journalist on Saturday that he was feeling fine after being captured by some of the fighters who overthrew his father and he said injuries to his right hand were suffered during a NATO air strike a month ago.
Asked by Reuters correspondent Marie-Louise Gumuchian on the plane which flew him to the town of Zintan if he was feeling all right, Gaddafi said simply: "Yes."
When asked about bandages on the thumb and two fingers of his right hand. "Air force, air force," he said. Asked if that meant a NATO air strike, he said: "Yes.
"One month ago."
Aides to Gaddafi had said his motorcade was caught by a NATO air strike as he tried to flee the pro-Gaddafi stronghold of Bani Walid, near Tripoli, on Oct. 19, the day before his father was captured and killed in his home town of Sirte.
He however repeatedly declined to confirm his identity outright.
"At the beginning he was very scared. He thought we would kill him," Ahmed Ammar, one of his captors, told Reuters. Seif was also reported to have been in possession of only a few thousand dollars.
So great was the crowd which thronged the Soviet-built cargo aircraft that flew him up from the desert town of Obari that his captors removed four other prisoners and other people from the plane, leaving Seif al-Islam still on board on the tarmac.
The statement regarding his arrest came on Saturday from the ruling National Transitional Council's justice minister Mohammed Al-Allagui.
The younger Gaddafi was in good health, the justice minister added. He was apparently trying to escape to neighbouring Niger.
An NTC commander told reporters from Tripoli that Seif al-Islam was arrested 70km (40 miles) from the oil town of Oubari along with three of his aides.
The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court says he will travel to Libya next week for talks with the country's transitional government on where Muammar Gaddafi's son Seif al-Islam will be tried.
Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo says that while national governments have the right to try their own citizens for war crimes, he is concerned that Gaddafi will have a fair trial and that he be tried for the same charges he faces at the ICC.
"The good news is that Seif al-Islam is arrested, he is alive, and now he will face justice," Ocampo said in an interview Saturday in The Hague.
The ICC issued warrants on June 27 against Seif al-Islam as well as his father and Abdullah al-Senussi, the late dictator's intelligence chief, on charges of crimes against humanity in crushing anti-regime protests.
Muammar Gaddafi’s second son, 39, went underground as Tripoli fell to revolutionary forces in late August and his whereabouts remained unknown even after Gaddafi was captured and killed by revolutionary forces on October 20.
There was no word of the other official wanted by the ICC, former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi.
The news broke as fighters from Zintan, a powerful faction among the many armed groups currently dominating Libya while the NTC tries to form a new government, started celebrating in Tripoli.
Bashir Thaelba, a Zintan field commander who had called a news conference on another issue, told reporters in the capital that Gaddafi would be held in Zintan until there was a government to hand him over to. The government is due to be formed within days."The rebels of Zintan announce that Seif al-Islam Gaddafi has been arrested along with three of his aides today," Thaelba said in remarks carried on Libyan television. "We hope at this historical moment that the future of Libya will be bright."
A photograph of Saif al-Islam showed him lying on what appeared to be a reclining sofa with his fingers wrapped in bandages and his legs covered with a thick, brown blanket. The wounds were apparently sustained earlier.
"They couldn't get away because we had a good plan," Wisam Dughaly added, saying Seif al-Islam had been using a 4x4 vehicle: "He was not hurt and will be taken safely for trial so Libyans will be able to prosecute him and get back their money.
He added that Seif al-Islam, once seen as a reformer who engineered his father's rapprochement with the West but who is now wanted at The Hague for war crimes against the rebels, appeared to have been hiding out in the desert since fleeing the tribal bastion of Bani Walid, near Tripoli, in October.
Justice Minister Allagui said he was in touch with the ICC over how to deal with Gaddafi, either at home or The Hague.
He told Al Jazeera: "We Libyans do not oppose the presence of international monitors to monitor the trial procedures that will take place for the symbols of the former regime."
Other Libyan officials have said a trial in Libya should first address killings, repression and wholesale theft of public funds over the four decades of the elder Gaddafi's personal rule. After that, the ICC might try him accusing him of giving orders to kill unarmed demonstrators after February's revolt.
Amnesty International demanded that the NTC must transfer Seif al-Islam Gaddafi to face investigation at the ICC.
"If reports are correct that Seif al-Islam al-Gaddafi has been captured by the Libyan authorities, he must be handed over to the ICC, and his safety and rights must be guaranteed," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director.
"After what happened after the capture of Muammar and Mutassim Gaddafi, we hold the NTC responsible for preventing similar harm coming to Seif al-Islam al-Gaddafi, so that he can face justice for his alleged crimes in a fair trial with no death penalty."
"Investigating Seif al-Islam before the ICC offers an opportunity to ensure justice, truth and reparation for the victims of the crimes against humanity he is charged with committing against the Libyan people - justice that may have been denied with the apparently unlawful killing of Muammar Gaddafi."
Libya has also been warned the UK will not tolerate the "extra-judicial assassination" of Seif al-Islam after reports emerged that he had been captured.
Libyan militia commander Bashir al-Tlayeb told a press conference that the son of former dictator Muammar Gaddafi was captured in Southern Libya with two aides, who were trying to smuggle him out to neighbouring Niger.
He is being taken to the city of Zintan in Northern Libya and is in good health, according to the National Transitional Council's Mohammed al-Allagui.
Former Lib Dem leader Sir Menzies Campbell said Libya must now prove it deserves its place among "civilised nations" by following "due process" in dealing with Seif al-Islam, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.
He said: "The government of Libya is on trial. Anything other than due process should not be tolerated.
"The UK did not commit in Libya to tolerate extra-judicial assassination as happened with his father.
"If Libya wishes to take its place among civilised nations it must take this opportunity to demonstrate it's commitment to the rule of law."
Seif Al-Islam always stood apart from his siblings, who were better known for their antics and eccentricities than their achievements.
Educated in Britain and fluent in English, Seif al-Islam found favor among prominent Western intellectuals, exhibited his paintings at galleries around the world, and won plaudits from world leaders and rights campaigners with talk of democracy and development.
He was long touted as the senior Gaddafi’s heir apparent and the man who would modernise and reform the country, but that position was always far from certain, and he faced fierce resistance from hard-liners in the regime as well as his younger brother, Muatassim, who served as national security adviser.
Muatassim also killed on October 20, according to officials of the transitional government. Killed earlier in the civil war were younger brothers Seif al-Arab and Khamis. Qaddafi’s other son, al-Saadi, fled to Niger in September, where the government has said it is treating him as a refugee. Their mother Safiya and sister Aisha fled to neighboring Algeria.
In a televised address five days after anti-government protests broke out in the eastern city of Benghazi as part of the wider Arab Spring uprising, a haggard-looking Seif al-Islam warned of “rivers of blood” if demonstrators refused to accept government offers of reform.
“We will fight until the last man, the last woman, the last bullet,” he said. “We will not lose Libya.”
The rambling, 40-minute speech marked Seif Al-Islam’s transformation from the man long viewed as the best hope for reforming his father’s regime into a fugitive wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity.