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International Criminal Court Confirms 'Indirect' Talks With Gadhafi Son

Officials of the International Criminal Court are having "indirect" talks with Saif al-Islam Gadhafi about his possible surrender, the ICC's prosecutor told The Associated Press and other news outlets today.

Saif al-Islam, one of Moammar Gadhafi's sons, once was seen as the heir apparent to the former Libyan dictator.

According to Reuters, prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said today that "through intermediaries, we have informal contact with Saif. The office of the prosecutor has made it clear that if he surrenders to the ICC, he has the right to be heard in court; he is innocent until proven guilty."

It isn't clear where Saif al-Islam is. In recent days there have been reports that he may be headed to Niger or Mali. The AP says that today, "Moreno-Ocampo said he believed [Saif al-Islam] also was in touch with unidentified mercenaries offering to find him refuge in an African country that does not cooperate with the court. He mentioned Zimbabwe as a likely possibility, and said the court was in contact with other countries to prevent Gadhafi's escape by denying any plane carrying him permission to fly through its air space."

Moammar Gadhafi was captured and killed, along with another of his sons, last Thursday in Sirte, Libya.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.