Mahmoudi handover means 'certain death'

Former Libyan prime minister Baghdadi Mahmoudi, who served under late Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's regime, has said the decision to hand him over to Libya's interim government means certain death for him. In a statement from his prison in Mornaguia in Tunisia, he questioned the ability and apparent desire of Libya's ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) to grant him a fair trial. Mahmoudi said in the statement: "I am not willing to be tried in Libya, but ready to respond to all the charges against me in any country of the world and in any court that guarantees me a fair trial." He said a hearing that satisfies basic international standards "will not exist in Libya in the near future" and that the NTC "had neither the capacity nor a sincere desire" to ensure he has a free trial. Mahmoudi, 68, has been detained in Mornaguia prison since his arrest on September 22 last year in Tozeur, a governorate in Tunisia, and was charged with illegally entering the country. He has on record denied charges levelled against him of being complicit in crimes against humanity, war crimes, corruption or "any other crimes allegedly committed in Libya or elsewhere”. The Libyan authorities had asked Tunisia to hand him over so that they could try him in Libya on the charges, including allegations of rape. The case was back in the spotlight after Tunisian justice minister Noureddine Beheiri announced that Tunis had agreed to hand him over soon. However, the official spokesman for the Tunisian presidency, Adnan Monser, rushed to deny the news. He confirmed in a statement broadcasted on official Tunisian television Thursday morning that Tunisia "will not hand over Mahmoudi, unless the Libyan side guarantees a fair trial”. Monser considers the agreement with Libya a preliminary one, saying Tunisia had set conditions before the actual extradition, such as the formation of a Tunisian committee to ascertain the circumstances of the Libyan judiciary and respect the physical and moral privacy of Mahmoudi. Lawyer Bashir al-Sayad, a member of Mahmoudi's defence team, described the Tunisian authorities' decision to hand over his client as "a disgrace to Tunisia and its people". Al-Sayad in a phone interview with United Press International that the Tunisian government was "trading with the blood of the people", saying he feared there was a financial deal behind extraditing Mahmoudi.