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Libya releases ICC officials accused of spying Libya releases ICC officials accused of spying
(40 minutes later)
Libya has freed four officials from the International Criminal Court (ICC), whose detention since early June on spying allegations plunged the interim government into its biggest diplomatic controversy since last year's revolution. Looking dazed but smiling, the international criminal court lawyer Melinda Taylor has been released from prison after nearly a month in detention in Libya, where she was accused of spying.
Australian lawyer Melinda Taylor and Lebanese-born interpreter Helene Assaf were held in the western mountain town of Zintan, accused of smuggling documents and hidden recording devices to Muammar Gaddafi's captured son, Saif al-Islam. Two male ICC staff who were travelling with Taylor and Assaf stayed with them. The Libyan government said it was freeing Taylor and three of her ICC colleagues as a "humanitarian" gesture. She was released from the mountain town of Zintan, and is expected in Tripoli before flying back to the Hague for a reunion with her husband and two-year-old daughter.
The four were freed on Monday after an apology from the ICC, whose president, Sang-Hyun Song, travelled to Zintan after weeks of pressure from the Hague-based court, the UN security council, Nato and the Australian government. The deal to release her was agreed late on Sunday, with the ICC's South Korean president, Sang-Hyan Song, flying to Tripoli on Monday and driving into the mountains to collect his four-person team. Taylor sat down with Song to a lunch laid on by her Zintani captors of chicken, fish, rice, and a can of fizzy orange drink.
"I wish to apologise for the difficulties which arose due to this series of events. In carrying out of its duties (the ICC) has no intention to compromise the national security of Libya," Song told a news conference. She was wearing a dark headscarf and a full-length black abeya. She seemed somewhat overwhelmed. Asked whether she was now free to go home, she told the Guardian tentatively: "I don't know. I think so."
Taylor and Assaf emerged after the news conference from a small room where they had been waiting and were taken to another area where they ate lunch. Dressed in black Islamic robes with their hair partially covered, they looked tired but were smiling. They did not respond to questions from Reuters. Libyan officials have reiterated that Taylor committed a serious "crime" when she and her three colleagues visited Saif al-Islam on 7 June. The ICC has indicted Saif – Muammar Gaddafi's son, who was captured last year and is in prison in Zintan – with crimes against humanity.
The four are due to leave for Europe on Monday night on a flight arranged by Italy, the Italian ambassador in Tripoli said. The four ICC staff members came to Zintan last month on an official mission to speak to Saif about his defence rights. But speaking at a press conference in the town today, the local brigade commander, Alejmi al-Ateri, said Taylor had smuggled secret letters to Saif, compromising Libya's national security. He refused to say what the alleged letters contained. The ICC delegation had also taken in a hidden video camera, he claimed.
Taylor had been sent to Libya to represent Saif, whom the ICC wants extradited to face charges of war crimes allegedly committed during the Nato-backed revolt that toppled his father last year. Libya has so far refused to extradite Saif, saying it would prefer to try him in its own courts. In a reference to Gaddafi loyalists, who are still active in parts of Libya, the commander said "suspicious entities" were plotting to spring Saif from custody. They also wanted to "hide his crimes and sins", he said, adding: "It's really regrettable this is done through members of the ICC."
"The agreement was that there would be a continuation of the negotiations with the ICC," the deputy foreign minister, Mohammed Abdel Aziz told the news conference. Song on Monday refused to comment on whether his ICC team was guilty of wrongdoing. But he struck an abjectly contrite tone, saying that the international court, facing the most damaging crisis in its 10-year-history, "deeply regretted" the episode. He also said the ICC would mount its own internal investigation once its four staff members were back in the Hague.
"If the ICC wants to send another team they will have to send one that respects Libyan sovereignty." "When the ICC has completed its investigation, the court will ensure anyone found guilty of any misconduct will be subjected to appropriate sanctions," he said.
Judicial experts say Saif is unlikely to get a fair trial in Libya, where the arrests of the ICC officials served only to highlight the challenges the interim government faces in imposing its authority on the myriad militias who helped topple Gaddafi and are now vying for power. Libyan officials said they would hold their own trial on 23 July to determine the ICC team's guilt or otherwise – but without the four defendants present.
Zintan is effectively outside central government control. With Saif in its custody, the Zintan brigade gained leverage in dealings with the Tripoli government as it tries to negotiate his fate with the ICC.
The arrest of the ICC officials also put the interim government in an awkward position in which it was essentially negotiating a deal between his captors and the outside world.
Late last month, the ICC expressed regret to Libyan authorities in what came close to an apology designed to secure the release of its employees.