Gaddaffi-era spy chief extradited to Libya

PanARMENIAN.Net - The man accused of helping in some of the worst crimes committed by ex-Libyan leader Muammar Gaddaffi has been extradited back to Libya after fleeing to Mauritania, Belfast Telegraph said.

Abdullah al-Senoussi, who ran Gaddaffi's feared intelligence service, was put on a special flight to Tripoli.

Libya, the International Criminal Court as well as France had all asked to try the former intelligence chief.

He is accused of involvement in the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie as well as the Abu Salim prison massacre of more than 1,200 prisoners by Gaddaffi's regime in 1996.

Al-Senoussi was arrested at Mauritania's international airport in March, where he showed up disguised as a Tuareg chieftain, wearing flowing robes and a turban. He was travelling on a fake passport. For months, Mauritania resisted calls to hand him over, insisting that their laws had been violated and that he should be tried on Mauritanian soil.

A spokeswoman for the international tribunal in The Hague, said the court had received no information yet from Libyan authorities on the transfer of al-Senoussi, but stressed that an international arrest warrant has been issued for him based on ICC charges.

France also lobbied to get custody of al-Senoussi. He was one of six Libyans convicted in their absence and sentenced to life in prison in France for the 1989 bombing of a passenger jet over Niger that killed all 170 people on board, including 54 French people.