Libya: Election, Seif Islam Handover Delayed
Mustapha Abdeljalil, head of the Transitional National Council, in power since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi, said Monday that parliamentary elections would be postponed in Libya. “It depends on the appeals filed by the candidates,” said Mustapha Abdeljalil. “This process will result in a postponement of elections.” The vote was supposed to take place June 19. Abdeljalil, however, did not mention a new date or give any indication of the postponement period.
Menawhile, former rebels who hold Seif al-Islam, son of the late Libyan leader, have been delaying his transfer to Tripoli because they did not get their salaries, said Monday the representative of Libya to the International Criminal Court ( ICC ).
“The failure of the TNC to fulfill its promise to pay the salaries of Zenten rebels for the six months, for an amount not exceeding 1.7 million dinars (1, 36 million), has led them to delay the transfer of Seif al-Islam to his prison in Tripoli “, Ahmed Jehani told the AFP.
Mr. Jehani has ruled out that this “represents a refusal to the transfer of Seif al-Islam”. “This is a normal request. They want the salaries for their work in recent months, “he added.
“Initially, the TNC had said it was willing to pay that amount. But when the deadline came, it failed to meet its commitments and said ‘it is possible to pay half of the sum,” noted Mr. Jehani.
Seif al-Islam, 39, is the subject of an arrest warrant by the ICC for crimes against humanity committed after 15 February 2011 during the repression of the uprising against the regime.
He is held in Zenten, 180 km southwest of Tripoli by the former rebels of the city who arrested him Nov. 19, 2011 in southern Libya.
Jehani also claimed that Seif al-Islam continued to refuse to have a lawyer. “The solution is not in the hands of the Libyan authorities but at the hands of the accused himself who has so far refused to appoint a lawyer to defend him,” he added.
