Libya to Announce New Govt. Tuesday

Posted November 21st, 2011 at 6:30 pm (UTC-5)
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Libya's transitional Prime Minister Abdurrahim el-Keib says he has finalized the line-up for a new government and that he would name his cabinet Tuesday.

Mr. Keib said he was working hard to ensure that he picked competent people capable of doing the job.

His announcement Monday came after Libyan leaders moved to bring the former regime's two most wanted men — Moammar Gadhafi's son, Seif al-Islam, and former intelligence chief, Abdullah al-Senoussi — to justice. The fugitive son of the country's late dictator was captured Saturday and Senoussi on Sunday — both in Libya's southern desert near the border with Niger.

A Libyan militia that captured Seif al-Islam Gadhafi said it will hold him in the western town of Zintan until a trial can be organized and the Tripoli-based transitional government discusses his fate with the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Senoussi, who is wanted by the ICC and by France for his involvement in the 1989 bombing of a French passenger plane over Niger that killed all 170 people on board, is being held in the town of Sabha by revolutionary fighters.

Libyan officials say they want to put Seif al-Islam and Senoussi on trial in Libya for playing a key role in the violent suppression of a pro-democracy uprising earlier this year. But, the ICC already has charged both with crimes against humanity and said they should stand trial in The Hague.

ICC spokesman Fadi El Abdallah said Sunday Libyan authorities must present the court with a formal request to try Seif al-Islam inside Libya and demonstrate that such a trial would be fair. The ICC said it had asked Libyan authorities to be allowed to visit Seif al-Islam in prison and expected the visit to take place soon.

Libya lacks an established judicial system because the elder Gadhafi kept state institutions weak to cement his 42-year rule, which ended when transitional forces drove him from Tripoli in August. The fighters killed Gadhafi in October in his hometown of Sirte.