Libya arrests ICC lawyer who met Saif Gaddafi

Libyan authorities have arrested a female Australian lawyer from the International Criminal Court for trying to pass “dangerous” documents to Saif al-Islam, detained son of slain leader Muammar Gaddafi, the ICC’s Libyan representative said on Saturday. “During a visit (to Saif on Friday), the lawyer tried to deliver documents to the accused, documents that have nothing to do with his case and that represent a danger to the security of Libya,” Ahmed al-Jehani said. The lawyer, named as Melinda Taylor, was part of a four-member ICC delegation that received permission from Libya’s chief prosecutor to visit Saif in Zintan, southwest of Tripoli, where he is being detained. Jehani said she is “under house arrest in Zintan, not in prison,” and is being questioned by the authorities. Saif, 39, has been in custody in Zintan since his arrest on November 19 in the wake of the uprising that toppled his father’s rule after more than 40 years in power. The ICC wants both Saif and his late father’s spymaster, Abdullah al-Senussi, for crimes against humanity committed while trying to put down last year’s bloody revolt. Jehani did not say what the documents were, except that they had been sent by Mohammed Ismail, Saif’s former right-hand man, who has been on the run since the revolt. Libya has been at loggerheads with the ICC over who has the right to bring former regime figures such as Saif and Senussi to justice.