Tripoli - Emad Ajaj and Agencies
Footage shows Gaddafi's funeral ceremony near Misurata
A leaked video showed the funeral ceremony of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, his son Mutassim, and Libya's former National Security Advisor Abu Bakr Yunis.
The shaky video shows open
coffins containing the three men's bodies. Gaddafi's personal cleric, Kahled Tantoush, who was arrested by the rebels, is shown reciting an Islamic funeral prayer.
Two of Gaddafi’s relatives have attended the funeral, Mansour Ibrahim, Ahmed Ibrahim, both of them were in the convoy tried to escape from Sirte and were arrested by the rebels.
Only two of the NTC members attended the funeral, who promised to keep his grave location will stay secretive. Reports claim that his son, Almotasem was buried next to him, where some other reports say that Gaddafi’s favorite son has fled through the desert to the Nigerian borders.
Gaddafi reportedly was buried Tuesday in a secret desert location to prevent people from defacing his grave and loyalists from turning it into a shrine. The bodies were removed overnight from the commercial freezer ,where they had been on display for four days:
"They were then buried at dawn Tuesday, according to Ibrahim Beitalmal, a spokesman for the military council in Misrata. Bani also confirmed the burial.
In a text message, Beitalmal said Islamic prayers were read over the bodies and that relatives and members of the local and military councils of Misrata attended the funeral."
According to Tantoush, Gaddafi was buried in accordance with Islamic rites. "Yes. They let us clean him and do what Islamic people do when a Muslim dies,"
The NTC officials are worried that people will deface Gaddafi’s grave , on the other hand sources from Nigeria said that Saif Al-Islam is in his way to Nigeria, as he decided to join his brother, Al-Saedi, who fled the country on September.
Al-Islam appeared on the Syria-based Alrai TV channel on Saturday night with an appeal to his supporters, saying he was alive and staying in Libya and intended to fight to the bitter end against the rebels.
“We are continuing resistance. I am in Libya, I am alive and free and willing to fight to the end and take revenge,” the TV channel loyal to the Gaddafi regime quoted him as saying.
A website of Gaddafi’s supporters earlier posted a statement that Seif al-Islam had been named an heir to the Libyan dictator and charged with the command of forces fighting the rebels.
Gaddafi, who ruled Libya for 42 years, was captured by the National Transitional Council fighters seven months after an international West-led alliance launched a military operation in Libya March 19.
On the other hand, Muammar Gaddafi's former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court, has passed from Niger into Mali, security sources from both countries said Thursday.
"Abdullah al-Senussi has arrived in the Malian desert, from Niger," where he was believed to be hiding under the protection of some Tuaregs, a Niger security source said on condition of anonymity.
The information was confirmed by a security source from northern Mali, who said Senoussi, who was a top aide to the late Libyan leader killed on October 20, was travelling with a small group.
It was not known if Gaddafi's son and heir-apparent Seif al-Islam was travelling with the group. Seif was also believed to be hiding in Niger after forces backing Libya's new rulers killed his father in Sirte.
Both Senussi and Seif are subjects of an arrest warrant issued by the ICC on June 27 for crimes against humanity, which also targeted Gaddafi.
In September Interpol issued a "red notice" for the trio.
Senussi, 62, who is also Gaddafi's brother-in-law, is also wanted by Paris, where he was sentenced in absentia to life in prison for the 1989 bombing of a French UTA airliner that claimed 170 lives.
Hundreds of Malians who fought in Libya for Gaddafi's forces, against the National Transition Council which has seized power in Tripoli, recently returned to the north of the country.
They are mostly former Tuareg rebels whose insurgencies against Bamako were backed by Gaddafi in the nineties and between 2006 and 2009.
Their return is a source of concern in the region which is already unstable due to the growing threat of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which kidnaps westerners, carries out attacks and is heavily involved in drug and arms trafficking.
Mali is a signatory to the Rome Statute which established the International Criminal Court, and is theoretically obliged to hand over wanted persons.