World Life on the run no bar to Gaddafi son leading Libya, says Russia Saif al-Islam is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity BL PREMIUM

The son of deposed Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi has the right to run for president in 2019 despite facing charges of crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court (ICC), says a top Russian official. Saif al-Islam, a one-time heir apparent to his father who has leadership ambitions, could become a unifying figure in the oil-rich state, said Mikhail Bogdanov, the Middle East envoy of President Vladimir Putin. “I think it will depend on their political will” in Libya, he said in an interview in Moscow this week. “The country has practically fallen apart, Libyans find it very hard to talk to each other.” Gaddafi’s son is wanted by The Hague-based tribunal for crimes against humanity relating to a violent crackdown on demonstrations against his father’s rule in 2011. The Libyan autocrat was overthrown and killed later that year, ending more than four decades in power. The court’s chief prosecutor in October rejected a bid by Saif al-Islam to have the charges dropped, wit...