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Africa North
ICC-Wanted Libya Commander 'Hands Himself In' to Strongman's Forces
2018-02-08
[AnNahar] A Libyan commander wanted by the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges announced he has handed himself in to the allied forces of strongman Khalifa Haftar
...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all...
Mahmoud al-Werfalli -- who commands the Benghazi-based al-Saiqa Brigade loyal to Haftar -- has been under an arrest warrant for the past six months over the cold-blooded executions of at least 33 people in 2016 and 2017.

Calls for Werfalli to face justice have grown since he was accused of personally shooting dead some 10 jihadist prisoners last month at the scene of a deadly kaboom on a mosque in Benghazi, Libya's second city.

In a video posted on Facebook overnight Tuesday to Wednesday, the commander announced "I am handing myself in to military police" under the command of Haftar, whose forces dominate the east of the country.

The claim could not be independently verified.

In the footage Werfalli insisted on his "innocence" and justified the executions as "sentences" against jihadist "killers."

This is not the first time that Werfalli has reportedly been held by Haftar's forces.

When his arrest warrant was issued in August 2017 Haftar's forces insisted he was in their custody and would face a military trial.

The United Nations
...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society...
in late January reiterated its demand for "the handing over of Mahmoud al-Werfalli immediately to the ICC in The Hague" after the latest reported killings in Benghazi.

The U.N. said it had documented "at least five similar cases, in 2017 alone, carried out or ordered by Werfalli."

Libya has been mired in chaos and violence since longtime dictator Muammar Qadaffy
...The late megalomaniac dictator of Libya, admired everywhere for his garish costumes, funny hats, harem of cutie bodyguards, and incoherent ravings. As far as is known, he is the only person who's ever declared jihad on Switzerland...
was ousted and killed in a NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all....
-backed uprising in 2011.

A U.N.-backed unity government based in the capital 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...
has struggled to assert its authority outside western Libya. Haftar supports a rival administration based in the east.

The U.N. is currently trying to negotiate an end to the current political turmoil by agreeing parliamentary and presidential elections later this year, but there is deep skepticism over whether they will take place.
Posted by:trailing wife

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