Gaddafi’s daughter pushes for death probe

The daughter of ousted Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi is pressing United Nations war-crimes prosecutors to investigate the October deaths of her father and one of her brothers during Libya’s civil war.

In a letter released on Tuesday, Aisha Gaddafi’s lawyer questioned whether the International Criminal Court has taken any steps to investigate the deaths of Gaddafi and his son Mutassim. The attorney, Nick Kaufman, said both ‘were captured alive at a time when they posed no threat to anyone,’ only to be ‘murdered in the most horrific fashion’ after their capture.’If your office is not currently investigating the aforementioned crimes, could you explain why and what steps have you taken to ensure that the Libyan authorities are, themselves, investigating the matter properly and in accordance with international investigative standards?’ Kaufman wrote to the court’s chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo.There was no immediate response to the letter from the prosecutor’s office.The office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and two major human rights groups called for an investigation into Gaddafi’s death in October. An autopsy determined the 69-year-old fugitive died from a gunshot wound to the head, but the pathologist who performed the procedure would not reveal whether the wound was inflicted at close range or from a distance.And the bodies of the ousted ruler, his son and his longtime defence minister were put on display in a meat-market refrigerator for several days before being buried – a step Kaufman said was ‘in complete defiance of Islamic law.’’The images of this savagery were broadcast throughout the world, causing my client severe emotional distress,’ Kaufman wrote.Kaufman questioned whether the ICC was investigating the Nato airstrike that preceded Gaddafi’s capture, whether it had received any details of the autopsies and why it did not dispatch an independent expert to the post-mortems.Aisha Gaddafi fled to Algeria along with several other family members as the regime crumbled in August. She is a lawyer who assisted in the defence of ex-Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, who was hanged in 2006, and a onetime UN Goodwill Ambassador. -CNN

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