The son and the spy chief of the dead Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi have been charged with murder in relation to Libya's 2011 civil war and will stand trial next month.

The prosecutor general Abdel Qader Radwan said the trial of the two - Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam and the deposed leader's spy chief Abdullah el-Senoussi - will start on September 19.

The two face charges over alleged crimes committed during Gaddafi's 42-year rule and during the eight-month civil war in which he was killed.

Last February, the International Criminal Court had ruled that Libya cannot give Gaddafi's son a fair trial and asked authorities to hand him over to The Hague-based court.

Libya wants to prosecute him at home, where he might face the death penalty, rather than hand him to the ICC where he could only receive a jail sentence.