The first senior official from the former Libyan regime has been charged in court in connection with the conflict that toppled Muammar Gaddafi, BBC News reported.

Abu Zeid Omar Dorda, who was the head of external intelligence, appeared in the Tripoli court behind a metal cage. He denied all six charges, which included ordering the fatal shooting of protesters last year.

The case has been adjourned until 26 June as his lawyer asked for more time to review the case.

Mr Dorda was arrested in September 2011, the month before Col Gaddafi was killed. Dorda’s trial is seen as a test case for Libya's judiciary and its capacity to deal with high-profile cases.

Mr Dorda is charged with "mobilising security forces to fire bullets at the heads and chests of civilians" and "preventing, through the use of force and intimidation, the staging of peaceful protests", the Libya's state-run news agency Wal reports.

He is also charged with arming his ethnic group with the purpose of inciting civil strife during Libya's seven-month rebellion last year.

Mr Dorda, 68, once served as Libya's prime minister and as an envoy to the UN. He took over as external intelligence chief in 2009 from Moussa Koussa, the foreign minister who defected in March 2011 from the regime and fled Libya, initially to the UK.

Mr Dorda was one of Gaddafi's most loyal supporters - even calling in to state TV in April last year to deny reports that he was defecting.