TRIPOLI — National Congress Speaker Mohammed Magarief has dismissed claims that Seif Gaddafi will be tried next month in Zintan as “rumors and lies”. The intervention by Libya's de facto president follows a growing number of reports to that effect in the international media, citing both the spokesman of the prosecutor-general, Taha Nasser Bara, and the Libyan representative to the International Criminal Court, Ahmed Al-Jawani. There has also been speculation that the trial will take place independent of any involvement from the ICC, which has a warrant for Seif's arrest on charges of Crimes Against Humanity. “This definitely will not happen,” Magarief told the Libya Herald Friday. “It is just rumors and lies”. The claims first appeared on Saturday evening in a British newspaper, when it was reported that government ministers had decided to compromise on the trial's location by holding it in Zintan as opposed to Tripoli, adding further that the ICC would not be involved. “We are sure that the evidence we have gathered is solid and it will shock and surprise the world. We believe we are capable of holding a fair trial,” Bara was quoted as saying. On Sunday, Deputy Prime Minister Mustafa Abushagur told this paper that his government had made no such decision, a position he has subsequently reiterated. On Thursday, Bara told reporters that a charge-sheet against Seif would be “approved by the prosecutor-general in the coming days and a date set for the September trial opening” in Zintan. As yet it remains unclear why the prosecutor-general's office has chosen to speak publicly about the location and conditions of the trial, without consulting either the government or the head of the National Congress. Insiders have said that the extremely sensitive nature of the case, combined with the significant logistical challenges of putting on such a high-profile trial securely, means that it will be impossible to proceed without government approval. The ICC has said that it has not received any official confirmation from the Libyan authorities regarding either the date or location of the trial. The court has also said that it has had no contact with Al-Jawani regarding the matter. “We work in seven countries. We have these kinds of rumors in different countries all the time. We can't just pick up the phone every time we hear a rumor,” a spokeswoman told the Libya Herald. The ICC has previously requested that Libya hand Seif over to them to stand trial in The Hague. However, the government has repeatedly insisted that Seif be tried in Libya, and has submitted a challenge to the ICC's position that it is a competent body to try the case.
