Broadcast this evening, the exclusive encounter with a news hound and crew from Al-Assema TV appears to have been recorded within the last few days. Wearing the same style blue prison jumpsuits as the 30 top Qadaffy-era officials now on trial in Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
, Saif was asked about his heath and whether he was being visited by human rights
...not to be confused with
individual rights,mind you...
organizations and members of his family. To both enquiries, he replied merely: "Yes. Thanks be to God."
The interviewer then asked why he wished to be tried in Zintan and not Tripoli. For the first time removing the hand that had been covering his mouth, Saif asked the interviewer if Zintan was not part of Libya? The interviewer said it was, to which Saif responded, with a flash of his old commanding ways, "Well there you are then". Sitting back, he then showed that, in his view, the interview was over.
It is understood that the TV station had convinced Saif's Libyan lawyer, Mohammed Abu Semah and the Zintani forces holding Saif, that he should make an on-screen appearance to confound rumours that he had escaped custody and left the country.
Saif's expressed satisfaction with a Libyan trial is new. In the past the defence lawyers appointed for him by the
International Criminal Court... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ...
, have said that their client wished to be tried in the Hague, because he does not believe that he can receive a fair trial in his home country. Libya is still contesting an outstanding ICC demand that Saif be handed over. The ICC has however now accepted that Qadaffy's former security chief Abdullah Senussi will now be tried fairly in Libya. Senussi's ICC legal team is currently appealing that ruling, even as his trial gets under way in Tripoli.
Saif was due to be appearing in the same Tripoli courtroom as well, but despite demands from the Ministry of Justice, he has not been brought from Zintan.