Fresh revolt brewing in Libya, says Gaddafi son
Photo/FILE
Saadi Gaddafi during a press conference in Sydney, Australia.
TRIPOLI, Saturday
Saadi Gaddafi, one of the sons of Libya’s slain dictator Muammar Gaddafi, has said a nationwide rebellion is brewing against the country’s new rulers as he vowed to return to his homeland.
“I will return to Libya at any time,” Saadi Gaddafi told Al-Arabiya television by telephone from neighbouring Niger, where he took refuge after the fall of Tripoli which ended his father’s 42-year iron-fisted rule of Libya.
“Seventy per cent of Libyans are not satisfied with the current situation,” he said in an interview on Friday, adding that “the Libyan people are ruled by gangs.”
Gaddafi said “there is a rebellion that is going on day after day, and there will be a rebellion in the entire country.”
Asked about the ruling National Transitional Council, which took over after his father’s overthrow last year, Gaddafi said:
“There will come a day when the Libyan people will be capable of wiping out these gangs.”
When he returns, “I will try to make sure that there are no reprisals or revenge operations,” he promised.
The NTC responded with a renewed call to the Niger authorities to extradite Saadi.
“The NTC requests to the government of Niger to immediately hand over Saadi and other fugitives to the Libyan authorities to maintain its interests and relations with the Libyan people,” spokesman Mohamed Nasr al-Harizi said in a statement.
Harizi warned that the “thuwar (former rebel militias) have not given up their arms and are ready to fight any unwise force.”
Saadi, 38, took refuge in Niger last September. The African country has refused to extradite him despite repeated requests from the new Libyan authorities.
They accuse him of having “taken goods by force and intimidation when he led the Libyan football federation,” according to international police organisation Interpol, which issued a “red notice” for his arrest.
Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou said on November 11 his country had granted political asylum to Saadi Gaddafi on “humanitarian grounds.”
