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By Libya Herald reporter.
Malta, 10 August 2015:
Saadi Qaddafi, the son of former Libyan dictator Muamar Qaddafi, appeared in a video interview . . .[restrict]today claiming he was being treated well.
In the video footage posted by online news site Orient News, Saadi says ‘’I have problems with the district attorney in investigating my case’’.
Surrounded by a number of cameras and what appear like journalists, Saadi is asked if there was anything he wanted or needed or he wanted to ask for. Would he like to be visited by his relatives, he was prompted.
‘‘If they can, I would like relatives to visit me’’, he responded.
Asked if he there was any mistreatment of him, he said: ‘’No, on the contrary, the treatment is well, in all honesty. Those responsible in the institution are always summoning me to ask me about this (mistreatment) point specifically, especially (inaudible) and Sheikh Khalid (Sharif)’’
Asked if he was getting healthcare he responded that ‘’healthcare is available 24 hours’’.
This latest video footage comes on the back of the earlier footage that surfaced on 4 August purporting to show Saadi being tortured by prison guards. Like the earlier video footage the veracity of this latest video footage must be questionable.
It will be recalled that in the ‘’torture video’’ prison guards at the Al-Hadba political prison in the southern edge of Tripoli appeared to be slapping and beating the blindfolded Saadi on his feet.
The torture video had caused a storm as the Al-Hadba prison is not under the control of the internationally recognized government based in the east of Libya, but is under the control of forces of the Islamist and former deputy defence Minister Khalid Sharif, who Saadi specifically mentioned in the latest video footage.
Sharif was surprisingly removed from his position as deputy Defence Minister in January by the Tripoli-based GNC-Libya Dawn administration of Omar Al-Hassi.
Sharif, a former commander of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) in Afghanistan who was captured in Pakistan in 2003 and sent back to Libya where Qaddafi jailed him, was given the post in Ali Zeidan’s government.
He retained the role when his boss as defence minister, Al-Thinni, became Prime Minister. After the latter’s internationally-recognised government moved to Beida in August, Sharif remained in the capital, working under the Tripoli-based “government” created by a group of members of the former parliament, the General National Congress, and headed by Omar Al-Hassi.
The appearance of both videos comes on the back of the death sentences passed by a Tripoli court on 28 July given to Saif Al-Islam Qaddafi, Abdullah Senussi and seven other leading former regime figures.
The death sentences triggered a number of demonstrations against them both within and outside Libya. The death sentences were widely condemned as flawed and unfair.
Libya’s Public Prosector’s Office subsequently announced that it was launching an investigation into the alleged torture of Saadi Qaddafi. [/restrict]
