His head shaved and his hands bound by shackles one of
Colonel Gadhafi's seven son's was today extradited to Libya, where he is wanted
on corruption charges.
Al-Saadi Gadhafi fled when his father's regime crumbled in
2011 and has been held under house arrest in Niger ever since.
Libya had been seeking the extradition of Saadi, Gadhafi's
third son, who escaped following the NATO-backed uprising.
'The Libyan government received today Saadi Gadhafi and he
arrived in Tripoli,' the cabinet of Prime Minister Ali Zeidan said in a
statement.
Al-Saadi, 41, and the former head of Libya's football
federation, is being held by judiciary police forces, the government said.
It thanked Niger for its cooperation and said al-Saadi would
be treated according to international justice standards for prisoners.
The authorities said al-Saadi - one of the deposed Libyan
leader's eight children - will be treated 'in accordance with international
law'.
A Libyan official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in
line with regulations, said al-Saadi arrived at Tripoli's airport in the early
hours of today and was transferred to a prison in the capital.
The website of a government-backed militia showed what it
said were pictures of al-Saadi wearing a blue prison uniform, calling him a
criminal.
Libyan news websites also ran pictures showing guards shaving
his head in prison.
Al-Saadi was known for his love of professional soccer and a
playboy lifestyle.
His brief career in Italian football ended after a failed
drug test. He headed Libya's Football Federation and was also the former head
of the country's special forces.
Like most of Gadhafi loyalists and ex-regime officials,
al-Saadi is wanted for his role in curbing protests against his father's rule
and the killing of protesters.
But unlike his brother, Seif al-Islam, who was groomed to be
Gadhafi's successor, al-Saadi is not sought by the International Criminal
Court.
Seif al-Islam is held by a militia in the western Libyan town
of Zintan, which refuses to hand him over to the central government for trial.
Al-Saadi joins Seif al-Islam as the only of Gadhafi's
children currently in Libya.
At least three other Gadhafi's sons were killed during the
uprising while the rest of the children sought asylum in neighboring Algeria,
along with Gadhafi's wife and al-Saadi's mother, Safiya.
The mother, a sister and two brothers, were granted asylum in
Oman in 2012 and moved there from Algeria.
Niger had previously refused to comply with Libyan requests
for al-Saadi, saying that once he was back home, he might be killed.
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