Now the most wanted man in the world–following the killing of Osama bin Laden and his father Muammar Gaddafi–Saif al-Islam is not only the target of commandos but of our era’s most viscous predator: lawyers.
No one really knows, but Al-Arabiya has reported that somewhere in the desert wasteland last week, perhaps with South African and Tuareg mercenary-bodyguards, the now-orphan crossed Libya’s central-southern border and entered Niger. Then he went to Mali. Civil war refugees blazed this trail earlier this year, but his current support team most likely resulted from a 50-man convoy, including Gaddafi’s former defense secretary Mansour Dhao, which carried gold and treasure to the Nigeri capital of Niamey on 6 September (Dhao returned just in time to be captured after Gaddafi’s brutal murder in Sirte and attended the late Colonel’s secret burial).
After his exodus, someone close to Saif contacted the International Criminal Court for details about a surrender, according to ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo. If Niger hands over the wayward son, it could ignite tension with the Tuareg, but the ICC would finally get a shot at a despot. However, the case won’t be simple. Big problems–like proving the mass graves and human rights abuses were the sins of the son and not just the father–await whatever court, if any, judges Saif. A collection of inner-circle text messages could prove his hands’ bloodiness, but the dismantled Gaddafi government holds the most promise for revelatory witnesses (like Dhao).
While Saif might survive and some lawyers might make their careers, Libyans aren’t slated to be the ones to try him, and he might even catch a black-market flight to ICC-free Zimbabwe.
A longer version of this cowritten with Lyndall Herman was originally published on SISMEC as
