“The Libyan government requests the Chamber to declare the case inadmissible and quash the surrender request,” Libya’s lawyers said in a document, filed before the International Criminal Court.
Tripoli and the ICC have been at loggerheads since Seif Al-Islam’s capture in November last year over where he should be tried, with Libya arguing it could put him in the dock before a local court.
But the ICC had issued an arrest warrant in late June last year against Seif and ex-Libyan security boss Abdullah Al-Senussi and it wants to see them tried in The Hague. A third warrant for the late Libyan strongman was nullified after Qaddafi was killed by rebel forces in October 2011.The new Libyan government said earlier it would file official papers by April 30 before the ICC to spell out reasons why Seif should be tried at home.
“Denying the Libyan state and its people the opportunity to carry out national proceedings, in accordance... with the Libyan law, would likely mean no state emerging from conflict could ever benefit from the complementary principle,” Libya’s lawyers said in the document.
Libya is referring to the ICC’s jurisdiction that is complementary to that of national courts, enabling it to act only when member states were unwilling or unable to do so.
Tripoli’s stance also got support Monday from the Arab League which said in a statement in Cairo: “The Libyan government has repeatedly assured that all conditions ... would be met to organize a fair and impartial trial on its territory.”
Separately, Nuri Abbar, head of the Libyan electoral committee, told AFP
that it has opened voter and candidate registration centers, in another step towards its goal of holding elections for a constituent assembly in June. "Registration for voters and candidates opened today."
The vote will mark the first nationwide poll after decades of dictatorship under Qaddafi, who was toppled and killed in an uprising last year.
Abbar said there are 1,350 voter registration centers across Libya, including 220 in the capital Tripoli. Another 13 centers are tasked with registering candidates. Libya, with a population of 6 million, has 3.4 million eligible voters, he said.
The ruling National Transitional Council, which took power last August, has pledged to hold elections for a constituent assembly in June.
The 200-member assembly is to appoint a panel of experts to draft a constitution which will then be put to a referendum.
