A Libyan court sentenced slain dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam and eight other defendants to death on Tuesday for crimes during the 2011 uprising.
Former intelligence chief Abdullah Senussi and Gaddafi’s last prime minister Al-Baghdadi al-Mahmudi were also among those sentenced to death.
The trial, which opened in the Libyan capital in April last year, has been dogged by criticism from human rights watchdogs and an unresolved dispute with the International Criminal Court in The Hague over jurisdiction in Saif al-Islam’s case.
The charges pressed against the accused include murder, kidnapping, complicity in incitement to rape, plunder, sabotage, embezzlement of public funds and acts harmful to national unity.
Before the revolt which erupted in February 2011, Saif al-Islam was increasingly seen as the successor to his father, despite publicly ruling out any dynastic ambitions in the North African country. Saif’s arrested was confirmed by the International Criminal Court in August 2011.
Muammar Gaddafi, Libya’s dictator for 42 years until he was ousted in an uprising-turned-civil war, was killed in October 2011, as revolutionary fighters overwhelmed his hometown of Sirte and captured the last major bastion of resistance two months after his regime fell.
