By Libya Herald reporter.
Tunis, 1 August 2017:
The trial of Saadi Qaddafi has been adjourned again, for the twelfth time since the case first opened in May 2015. The Tripoli Appeals Court pushed it back to mid-August. The reason given was the court’s need to collect statements from other witnesses. There was also a request from the defence counsel for the accused to call witnesses currently out of the country.
Saadi is being tried on the charge that he ordered the murder of Ittihad Tripoli football team coach Bashir Al-Rayani in March 2006. He also faces a number of other separate charges, including financial corruption, illegally detaining people, the suppression of the 2011 revolution and the illegal consumption of alcohol. He continues to deny all accusations.
Saadi and other former regime prisoners were held in Tripoli’s notorious Hadba prison where videos showed him being tortured by prison guards. He was transferred to more comfortable accommodation in May after Haithem Tajouri and his Tripoli Revolutionaries’ Brigade captured the prison from so-called revolutionaries led by former deputy defence minister Khaled Sharif.
Sharif has since fled the country and is said to be in Turkey.
