The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Friday ruled that the trial of slain Libyan leader Moammar Qadhafi's intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi could be carried out in Libya.
ICC said in a statement that its Pre-Trial Chamber I decided that "the case against Al-Senussi is currently subject to domestic proceedings conducted by the Libyan competent authorities and that Libya is willing and able genuinely to carry out such investigation. Therefore, the Judges concluded that the case is inadmissible before the Court, in accordance with the principle of complementarity enshrined in the Rome Statute."
The court made it clear that the ICC prosecutor and the defense counsel may appeal this decision for review.
Libya had filed a challenge to the admissibility of the case by ICC in April. The Chamber found that the evidence submitted by Libya is sufficient to conclude that the Libyan and the ICC investigations cover the same case and that concrete and progressive steps are being undertaken by the Libyan authorities in the proceedings against Senussi.
ICC in 2011 June had issued arrest warrants for Qadhafi, his son Saif al-Islam, and Senussi on charges of committing crimes against humanity during attacks on Libyan protesters, hundreds of whom were killed in Opposition revolt against the Qadhafi regime.
Qadhafi was killed in October 2010 during the final days of the eight-month-long conflict, Saif was arrested in Libya, and Senussi was extradited to the country from Mauritania in September 2012.
Senussi was also wanted by France, which sentenced him to life imprisonment for the shooting down of a UTA airliner over Niger in 1989 in which 170 people were killed. Paris sought his extradition from Mauritania after his arrest.
Senussi, who is also Qadhafi's brother-in-law, is accused of playing a part in the bombing of a Pan Am flight over Lockerbie, and crimes within Libya including the notorious massacre at Abu Salim prison.
While closing the case against Qadhafi in November last, Netherlands-based ICC had made it clear that it would be up to the Court to decide where Saif and Senussi would stand trial to face charges for crimes against humanity.
Known as one of Qadhafi's closest confidants, Senussi is accused of having helped orchestrate some of the worst crimes committed by the regime of the ex-Libyan leader.
The court noted that this decision has no bearing on the case against Saif al-Islam Qadhafi, who is being held by a militia in the western Libyan town of Zintan.
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