Qaddafi’s son Saif still in Libya prison

This file photo taken on May 2, 2013 shows Seif al-Islam, son of Libya's late dictator Moamer Kadhafi, looking on in the accused cell as he stands trial for illegally trying to communicate with the outside world in June last year in Libya's northwestern town of Zintan. (AFP)

BENGHAZI: Saif Al-Islam, a son of the late Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, remains in the prison in western Libya where he has been held since the 2011 uprising that toppled his father, a military source said on Thursday, contradicting media reports that Saif had been released.
Since his father’s downfall, Saif has been held in Zintan, a mountainous western region, by one of the factions that began contending for power after Qaddafi was killed in 2011 and have now split the country into warring fiefdoms. “We deny that Saif has been released,” the military source said.
Last July, a Libyan court sentenced Saif to death in absentia for war crimes, including killing protesters during the 2011 revolt.
Zintani forces refused to hand Saif over to any other authorities, saying they did not trust Tripoli to guarantee he does not escape. But they agreed to let him be tried there, though he appeared mainly by video link.
Libya’s new UN-backed unity government, set up in Tripoli three months ago, is trying to bring together the various factions.