By Thomas Escritt and Ali Shuaib | Reuters
AMSTERDAM/TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya authorized payment of almost $200 million to Mauritania
months after it extradited the Libyan ex-spy chief to face trial at
home in defiance of an International Criminal Court warrant for his
arrest, Libyan government documents show.
Abdullah al-Senussi is wanted by the ICC on suspicion of orchestrating brutal reprisals during the 2011 uprising that led to the fall and death of Muammar Gaddafi, who ruled the North African country with an iron fist for 42 years.
A lawyer for Senussi
told Reuters he believed the $200 million payment, equivalent to about 5
percent of Mauritania's gross domestic product, was designed to secure
Senussi's repatriation after he fled to Mauritania in March last year.
The payment was shown in government documents seen by
Reuters, and Libyan officials said it was made as aid for Mauritania, a
poor West African country with which Tripoli has had important
investment ties.
Former Libyan deputy prime minister Mustafa Abu Shagur denied that the 250 million Libyan dinars - about $200 million - donation to Mauritania was made for Senussi's handover.
"That amount was
made to help Mauritania as Libya has helped the Mauritanian economy
before. We already have big investments in Mauritania," he told Reuters.
Abu Shagur led the
first Libyan delegation to the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott after
Senussi was arrested in March 2012 to lead the negotiations for his
handover.
Senussi was one of
Gaddafi's closest lieutenants for decades and may have information about
the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am passenger jet over Scotland and the 1984
shooting of policewoman Yvonne Fletcher outside the Libyan embassy in
London.
Lawyers for Senussi are keen to see him extradited from
Libya to the ICC in The Hague because the international war crimes
court does not have the death penalty.
In a July 24, 2012 diplomatic "note verbale" from the Libyan embassy
in Mauritania, also seen by Reuters, Libyan authorities requested
authorization for an airplane chartered from a Libyan company to land
for 72 hours in Nouakchott with the purpose of "transporting the Libyan
spy chief".
But Senussi was not repatriated until early September,
arriving in Tripoli on September 5, when he was taken into custody by
Libya's post-Gaddafi transitional authorities.DONATIONS
On November 14, the
Libyan council of ministers published a decree authorizing payments to
several countries, including a payment of 250 million Libyan dinars "as a
donation to the Mauritanian people".
There have been Libyan investments in Mauritania since
1978, starting with an investment by a company dealing with the
fisheries industry, a government official told Reuters. There are also
commercial investments, including in banking.Reuters was not able to confirm that there had been previous large donations.
"These new documents establish conclusively that Libya was responsible for the rendition of Senussi and that it paid a vast sum of money to Mauritanian officials to induce them to violate international law," said Ben Emmerson, Senussi's lawyer.
"The figure of 250
million Libyan dinars represents more than 5 percent of the entire GDP
of Mauritania. That is an indication of the lengths Libya was prepared
to go to in order to get its hands on Senussi."
Emmerson cited press reports from Mauritania in which
an opposition member of parliament raised questions as to what had
happened to the $200 million from Libya.Since the ICC issued a warrant for Senussi after a referral by the U.N. Security Council, any attempt to have him extradited to anywhere other than the court's detention center in The Hague would violate international law.
ICC WRANGLING
The ICC indicted
Senussi along with Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam but both remain in Libya
while the Tripoli government and the ICC wrangle over who has the right
to try the pair.
Libya has said that
since it is willing and able to give the two men a fair trial, the ICC
has no jurisdiction over the case. Libya has hired top human rights
lawyers to argue its case before ICC judges in The Hague.
Libya has said it
will abide by the ICC's ruling. On Tuesday, in a filing to the ICC,
Libya denied press reports that the trials of Senussi and Saif al-Islam
would begin in February regardless of any ICC ruling.
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