ICC issues arrest warrant for Benghazi commander

Al-Werfalli accused of involvement in at least seven incidents

THE HAGUE: International judges have issued a war crimes arrest warrant against a senior Libyan military commander, suspected of involvement in the deaths of 33 people in Benghazi.

“The International Criminal Court has issued a warrant of arrest for Mahmoud Mustafa Busayf Al-Werfalli, allegedly responsible for murder as a war crime in the context of the non-international armed conflict in Libya,” the Hague-based tribunal said in a statement.

Al-Werfalli, born in 1978, is a senior commander in the Al-Saiqa brigade, an elite unit which defected from the Libyan National Army after the uprising against longtime dictator Muammar Qaddafi in 2011.

He joined the brigade after Qaddafi’s fall and has “played a commanding role since at least 2015,” the ICC’s judges said in the arrest warrant.

Since then, the brigade has been battling alongside forces loyal to Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar in Benghazi, Libya’s secondlargest city, which has recently been liberated after a three-year campaign against extremist groups.

Al-Werfalli is accused of involvement in at least seven incidents in 2016 and 2017 in which he allegedly personally shot or ordered the execution of people who were either civilians or injured fighters.

“There is no information in the evidence to show that they have been afforded a trial by a legitimate court, whether military or otherwise, that would comport to any recognized standard of due process,” the ICC’s judges said.

Tuesday’s announcement comes as the court is still in a legal tug-of-war with Libyan authorities to transfer Qaddafi’s son Seif Al-Islam to The Hague.

The ICC and Libyan authorities are disputing who has the right to judge him.

Seif Al-Islam faces crimes against humanity charges for his own role in the Qaddafi regime’s brutal attempts to put down the 2011 uprising, which eventually toppled his father.

The Qaddafi heir’s exact whereabouts are unknown, following a claim in June by a Zintan-based militia that it had freed Seif under an amnesty law promulgated by the parliament based in Libya’s east.

The ICC opened its probe into Libya in March 2011 to investigate atrocities committed during the uprising against Qaddafi, which erupted a month earlier.