A court in Libya imposed the death sentence on Tuesday on eight officials who served under the dictatorship of former Libyan strongman Col. Moammar Gaddafi. One of those sentenced by firing squad was the dictator's son, Sail al-Islam Gaddafi.
However, he was not present during the sentencing and the entire trial since the younger Gaddafi was in another prison about 100 miles away from Tripoli, Libya's capital where the court is located, reports BBC. A holder of a dubious PhD degree from the London School of Economics, Gaddafi was locked in Zintan, a mountainous region in western Libya.
When his father was still in power, Saif was often seen on Libyan TV lecturing the nation, often pointing his forefinger to emphasize something. When he was captured in 2011, that forefinger was chopped off, and a bloodied handkerchief covered his hand to hide the injury.
But chances of his execution being carried out appears to be dim at this point, BBC said, because of the antagonism between the Zintan group and the Tripoli government - described as so bitter.
The Tripoli trials, which the International Criminal Court believes should have been handled by the court in The Hague, resulted in the acquittal of four defendants. One of them was an ex-foreign minister. The Human Rights Watch said the trial was flawed and questioned the judiciary's credibility.
The Irish Examiner reports that besides the eight sentenced to die by firing squad, seven other accused were given 12-year sentences each, while 18 of the 37 defendants got shorter prison terms. Besides Gaddafi, also sentenced to death were Abdullah al-Senussi, the former intelligence chief, and Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi, former prime minister.
Aside from war crimes, the defendants were charged with crimes against humanity by their use of deadly force to suppress demonstrations, and corruption. At the start of the trial, Saif was seen through a video link in his Zintan cell. The other defendants are held in Misrata. The court's decision is supposed to be confirmed by the Libyan Supreme Court and could be appealed, which is what Saif's lawyers would likely do.