Saif al-Islam Gaddafi says ICC charges over the shooting of Benghazi protesters may be dropped in return for secret peace deal

The son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has claimed that Nato has offered the regime an "under the table" deal that would see the international arrest warrants against both men dropped.

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi vehemently denied that he or his father ordered the killing of civilian protesters, as charged this week by the international criminal court (ICC).

In his first interview since the charges were brought, Saif alleged that western powers had proposed sacrificing the independence of the ICC to negotiate an end to Libya's civil war.

"It's a fake court," he told Russian news channel RT in an interview released on Friday. "Under the table they are trying to negotiate with us a deal: 'If you accept this deal, we will take care of the court.' What does it mean? It means the court is controlled by those countries which are attacking us every day. It is just to put a psychological and political pressure on us."

Documents from the ICC outline multiple incidents in which the tribunal prosecutors allege government troops fired on civilian protesters during anti-Gaddafi street demonstrations earlier this year.

Saif, 39, wearing a thick beard, insisted that neither he nor his father were responsible. "This court is a Mickey Mouse court," he said. "Come on, they accuse me of killing people. Everybody knows, even the rebels themselves, they can't accuse me of using force because I'm not in the army, I'm not in the government, so for me to be responsible for killing people, it was a big joke.

"Second joke – the people who died at the beginning, 159 – most of the people died when they attacked a military site and this would happen anywhere in the world – in Russia, in America, in France, in Germany and Italy. If people in the street move towards a military site trying to steal ammunition or arms, the military will prevent that, and this is what happened in Benghazi."

On Monday, the tribunal at The Hague issued arrest warrants against Gaddafi, Saif and intelligence chief Abdullah al-Sanoussi. The three are accused of orchestrating the killing, injuring, arrest and imprisonment of hundreds of civilians during the first 12 days of the uprising and for trying to cover up their alleged crimes.

Asked by the Russian state-funded network who did order the brutal crackdown, Saif replied: "Nobody ordered, nobody. The guards fired – that's it. The guards were surprised by the attack of the people and they started firing. They don't need an order to defend themselves and to defend their barracks and their camps."

Saif, who studied at the London School of Economics, had once been viewed as a reformer by the west and was being groomed as a possible successor to his father.

He accused Nato and the rebels of being in a "hurry" to finish the conflict, and warned that the government is ready to wait them out.

"They want to finish as soon as possible because they are hungry, they are tired, they want to share the cake," he said. "For them Libya is like fast food, like McDonald's, fast. Because everything should be fast: fast war, fast airplanes, fast bullets, fast victory.

"But we are very patient because we are in our country. We live here, we die here, so we are very patient. We may win tomorrow, in one week or in one year, but one day we'll win. One day the French will go back to Corsica in France, the Italians will go back to Sicily in Italy, the Danish will go back to Denmark, the Canadians will go back to Toronto and Libya will go back to the Libyans."

Saif's reaction to the ICC charges was dismissed by underground activists in Tripoli. A man using the name Niz, who belongs to a group known as the Free Generation Movement, said: "There is no one who does anything without the desire and wish of Colonel Gaddafi. Any atrocity in the last five months or in the last 42 years is directly associated with an order issued in one way or another by Colonel Gaddafi."

On Friday, rebels were pulling back from their positions outside the strategic town of Bir al-Ghanam, 50 miles south of Tripoli, after coming under rocket attack, Reuters reported.

A rebel spokesman, Gomaa Ibrahim, said a colonel in Gaddafi's army had defected to the rebel side. The officer, Mohammed al-Rajbani, had served as a local commander in the Libyan military and recently joined rebels in Libya's western mountains, Ibrahim told the Associated Press.