Interpol issues warrants for Libyan officials

The global police agency Interpol issued alerts Thursday seeking the arrest of two senior officials in late Libyan strongman Moamer Kadhafi's regime on suspicion of torture and kidnapping. A statement from the France-based body said Libya had requested assistance in detaining two officials identified by Interpol as former interior minister Al-Senussi Alozyre, 63, and his former deputy Naser al-Mabruk, 60. Both reportedly fled Libya during the uprising last year that toppled Kadhafi's regime. They are "accused of a range of offences including carrying out illegal arrests, unjustified deprivation of personal liberty and torture." Several other Libyan officials are subject to Interpol "Red Notice" arrest requests, including the dictator's surviving sons and his former intelligence chief Abdullah Senussi, 62, who is being held in Mauritania. "They are wanted for crimes against humanity and they have escaped Libya," a senior interior ministry official told AFP in Tripoli, adding that their whereabouts remain unknown. Alozyre, he said, was reviled for his long career in national security and had escaped via the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi in February last year, after the outbreak of the popular revolt that toppled Kadhafi's regime. Mabruk, who served in the interior ministry, escaped after former rebels took over the capital.