Mauritania Extradites Al-Senussi to Libya

What I said last month, about Mauritania refusing to extradite al-Senussi to Libya?  Never mind:

The man accused of having helped orchestrate some of the worst crimes committed by the regime of ex-Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has been extradited back to Libya, according to a Mauritanian government statement.

The communique carried by national radio and on Mauritania’s official news agency said Abdullah al-Senoussi, who ran Gadhafi’s feared intelligence service, was sent back to Libya, giving no further details. An official in the ministry of foreign affairs, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the matter, said that al-Senoussi boarded a special flight at 9 a.m. local time (0900 GMT) and was headed to Tripoli.

This development makes it far more likely that Libya’s admissibility challenge to the ICC’s case against al-Senussi will succeed.  Libya is obviously no longer “unable to obtain the accused” for purposes of Article 17(3) of the Rome Statute.

Libya’s ridiculous stall tactics regarding its admissibility challenge appear to have paid off.  The big losers are France, which also wanted to prosecute al-Senussi, and al-Senussi himself, who will no doubt receive an unfair trial in Libya.