The bare room in a villa outside the Libyan mountain town of Zintan where Saif Al Gaddafi now lives under guard is a modest affair, very different to the luxury of his $14 million  London villa. He is not physically mistreated, according to Fred Abrahams of Human Rights Watch, who is allowed a rare visit to the man indicted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.

By Chris Stephen, Tripoli

But the son of Libya’s late dictator Muammar Gaddafi is isolated. With no television, computer, phone or access to a lawyer, he is probably unaware of the political storm whipped up this week between the Libyan government and the ICC over his capture.

On Monday, Libya’s justice minister, Ali Humaida Ashour said the ICC agreed that Saif Al Islam’s trial could be held in Libya. ICC spokesman Fadi El Abduallah shot back that the court had made no such decision - and could make no such ruling unless Libya submitted a formal challenge. But the ICC’s position was unrealistic from the start. The NTC made it clear immediately after the Security Council referral that it wanted Gaddafi et al. tried in Libya.

No lawyer for Saif
Saif was arrested by Zintan’s militia in southern Libya in November and is kept in a secret location in the mountain town. Zintan’s council leader, Omran Eturk, says the trial will be in Zintan, not Tripoli. “It must be here. We can guarantee a fair trial,” he said. What he seems unable to guarantee is that Saif can meet a lawyer. In December, the ICC wrote to Libya’s government about reports that he had been denied a lawyer.
A confidential response is now at the ICC, but sources in Libya say the situation remains the same: Saif has no access to a lawyer and there is no sign of a trial process.   
   
Safer in Zintan
Zintanis insist that Saif is safer in Zintan than Tripoli because they say he knows secrets about rich and powerful backers of the NTC. “If he went to Tripoli, he would be killed, it is sure, and he knows it,” said one Zintani militia fighter, speaking on condition of anonymity.
An anonymous official familiar with the ICC said Hague judges were “frustrated” not just with Libya’s response, but with the actions of Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo. In September Ocampo visited Libya and declared he would not object to a trial in Libya.  “It was the wrong thing to do,” she said. “It sent a signal that The Hague was happy for the trial to be in Libya. There’s no such signal.
Last July, with the civil war raging, the Libyan rebel commander was murdered in the rebel capital, Benghazi, apparently by his own side. A prosecution was promised. None has transpired, casting doubt on the NTC’s commitment to the rule of law.
Saif’s lawyerless confinement is another black mark, as are recent reports from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Medecins Sans Frontieres alleging that up to 8,000 prisoners of war languish in militia jails around the country.
But the ICC is the last thing on the embattled government’s mind. The NTC is hemorrhaging public support with protests in cities accusing it of being incompetent, corrupt and secretive. The NTC appointed a cabinet in November. But its membership and meetings are secret.

Forgive crimes?
Edicts such as that by Mahmoud Shamman, NTC spokesman, who declared a few weeks ago that crimes committed prior to the revolution would be forgiven, cause fury. The revolution itself was triggered by protests among lawyers who have been campaigning for years for justice for those  murdered by Gaddafi’s henchmen in Tripoli in 1996.
One diplomat said Shamman’s comment should not be “taken seriously,” any more than should another NTC announcement that the justice ministry will be moved to Misrata, a move that would cause administrative chaos.
Yet the NTC is the internationally recognised government of Libya, and if it does not “take seriously” its plans for the trial of Saif Al Islam, the court is likely, said the insider, to report Libya to the UN Security Council for non-compliance with its edicts. Observers believe Libya won’t take any ICC threat seriously.