Qaddafi’s ex-Prime Minister ordered extradited to Libya
Special to USAfricaonline.com
TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — A Tunisian appeals court on Tuesday ordered former Libyan Prime Minister Al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi extradited to Libya.
Al-Mahmoudi was convicted of illegally crossing into Tunisia and imprisoned there in September, but the conviction was later overturned.
Tunisian authorities have continued to hold him, however, following an extradition request from Libya.
Al-Mahmoudi is not among the former allies of Moammar Gadhafi being sought by the International Criminal Court, but Libyan authorities say he is wanted for alleged corruption and other crimes.
The Tunisian government has the final say on whether to extradite al-Mahmoudi. Justice Ministry spokesman Kadhem Zine El Abidine told The Associated Press Tuesday that Tunisia’s president must issue a decree to order the extradition.
Lawyers for al-Mahmoudi say he is in danger because of the many secrets he knows about Gadhafi’s regime.
Mabrouk Korchid, the coordinator for the prime minister’s big legal team, has said that with Gadhafi’s death, al-Mahmoudi is the “sole holder” of internal Libyan secrets and “relations between Libya and certain powers.”
Korchid says the 70-year-old is weak and suffers from diabetes.
Korchid says al-Mahmoudi is accused by the Libyan authorities of having ordered “illegal transactions” in 2006, and of having “incited rapes of women” in the last days of the Gadhafi regime.
