21 Jun Melinda Taylor Being Interrogated — and Bob Carr Being Embarrassed
According to The Guardian, Libya is now interrogating Taylor and intends to prosecute her for violations of “national security” (read: doing her job and defending Saif) even if the ICC apologizes:
Tripoli said on Wednesday night that Taylor, one of four ICC officers who were on an official visit to Libya, had tried to deliver documents to Saif that were not part of her work for the court.
“An interrogation of them is under way,” said the Libyan government spokesman Nassar el-Manee. “There is evidence that proves they have breached the law.”
Tripoli says the documents represented a “threat to national security”, but has given no details.
The decision comes after the Australian foreign minister, Robert Carr, met Libya’s prime minister, Abdulrahim el-Keib, earlier this week, announcing a hope that Taylor would be released if the ICC issued an “apology”.
Manee said such an apology would not prevent a criminal case being launched. “They [the ICC] should say: ‘We have made a mistake,'” said Manee. “When the interrogation is complete we will explain everything.”
I’m sure they will. In the meantime, this latest development provides clear evidence that Bob Carr was simply being played by the Libyan government. The government obviously had no intention of releasing her; it simply wanted the Foreign Minister of a major western power to go on record with his belief that the ICC, not Libya, was responsible for Taylor’s detention. I guess blaming the victim wasn’t such a good idea, after all. May we please take the ICC apology off the table now?
Oh, and The Guardian provides another interesting piece of information: Taylor has been held incommunicado for the past nine days. The Rule of Law is indeed alive and well in Libya.
Does anybody know if there is anything that is being done or could be done by academics to assist Mel? I don’t think an amicus brief is going to be very helpful here, but perhaps I am wrong. And perhaps there is something else that we (as a group) could do?
Stuart
Call the Libya desk at State and raise Cain. Even if she is Australian that is something that can be done. Make her a prisoner of conscience in Amnesty International. Write to the Libyan Embassy.
Best,
Ben
ICC is greatly respected by all but the actions of Mrs. Taylor and her partners should not be. To hide illegal documents and equipment that jeoperdise the host country is unethical and unprofessoional. The accused (saiful islam qaddaffi) is being accused of crimes against humanities, documents that Mrs Taylor was carrying were from a former senior intelligence officer (Mohamed ismael) in the Qaddaffi’s regime who was the right hand man of Saif, accused of attempt against King abdalla of Saudi Arabia among many other crimes. He was working directly under Abdalla Sanusi who was the top man in the past intelligence apparatus and who was considered most dangerous and most rootless person. Abdala Sanusi has been accused of numerous crimes including but not limited to the UTA flight that was shot down with a large number of passengers, and the killing of 1270 persons, mass burying and later burning their bodies. Hs has been issued an ICC warrant of arrest and was recently capatured in Muraitania. This is a confusing situation. A few questions are in order:
1. How come no regrets of the actions of Mrs. Taylor and her colleagues were issued?
2. Has there been a network involving the parties involved?
3. Is this image we should see of the ICC?
Mario,
And your proof of the allegations is what, exactly? The word of the Libyan government? Do you believe that a letter from Saif describing his mistreatment qualifies as an “illegal document”?
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