Situation in Libya

Near the end of a Libyan civil war, Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi (defendant), son of the former Libyan prime minister, was detained by militia forces. The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Gaddafi, charging him with crimes against humanity for using official state forces to murder hundreds of civilian protestors in February 2011. The new Libyan government was also investigating Gaddafi for crimes allegedly committed while his father was in power, but the conduct being investigated by the government was different from the conduct covered by the ICC’s charges. Further, the new government was still rebuilding the country’s legal institutions, ending the torture of detainees, and generally restoring the rule of law. The government had no programs for protecting witnesses. Gaddafi and two key witnesses were held by militia groups inside the country, but the government had not succeeded in gaining custody of any of the three men or finding a lawyer to represent Gaddafi against the domestic charges. Libyan law required that criminal defendants be present at any trial. The Libyan government challenged the ICC’s ability to hear the ICC’s charges against Gaddafi, arguing that the case was inadmissible because Libya was actively pursuing domestic charges against Gaddafi. Gaddafi had an ICC attorney, who argued that the ICC should not defer to the Libyan prosecution because it was impossible for Gaddafi to get a fair trial on the domestic charges. The ICC’s pretrial chamber reviewed the admissibility challenge.