Defiant Seif al-Islam 'not in rebel hands', makes appearance on Tripoli streets

VIDEO: Courtesy ITN News

07:38  Seif al-Islam appeared in an armoured white car and met briefly with BBC reporter Matthew Price,  the news that he is still free and controlling Gaddafi loyalists questions earlier reports that he was in the hand of rebels.  Gaddafi's son told Price that they were winning the war and smiled. He also suggested that his father was well.  An earlier report talked of Mohammed, Gaddafi's other son escaping from arrest.  But the arrest by the rebels of Mohammed is now being questioned.

19:38: Reports say Mohammad Gaddafi, the eldest son of the Libyan leader, has escaped from custody after being captured by opposition fighters yesterday. Al Jazeera says he was aided by Gaddafi loyalists.

Also on Twitter emerging reports that Gaddafi is in hospital in or near Tajoura. But BBC correspondents on the microblogging site say this is not the first time that Gaddafi has been described as having left Tripoli.

Earlier: The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court was contacting Libyan rebels Monday to urge them to hand over the son of Muammar Gaddafi, detained during their dramatic thrust into Tripoli, and not take the law into their own hands.

“It is time for justice, not revenge,” Luis Moreno-Ocampo said after receiving confirmation that opposition forces had detained Seif al-Islam Gaddafi, his father’s one-time heir apparent who has been indicted on crimes against humanity charges.

Moreno-Ocampo charged Muammar Gaddafi, his son and his intelligence chief Abdullah al-Sanoussi in May with involvement in a campaign to attack civilians in their homes, shoot at demonstrators with live ammunition, shell funeral processions and deploy snipers to kill people leaving mosques.

Issuing arrest warrants for the suspects in June, Presiding Judge Sanji Monageng said evidence showed Gaddafi and his inner circle plotted a “state policy” to stamp out dissent “by any means - including by the use of lethal force.”

Rebels have previously pledged to hand over indicted suspects they capture, but also have said they would like to try them in Libya.

Moreno-Ocampo stressed that he wants to put Seif Gaddafi on trial in The Hague.

Britain has urged the rebel Libyan National Transitional Council to maintain order and not pursue reprisals after rebel fighters swept into the heart of the capital Tripoli.

Britain, which has played a leading role in international efforts to oust Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, wants to avoid a repeat of the chaos and bloodshed that swept Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein by a US-led invasion in 2003.

Foreign office minister Alistair Burt told BBC Radio 4 that Gaddafi’s fate was a matter for the Libyan people, noting that the rebels wanted him arrested and detained rather than allowed to go into exile.
“The most important thing is to make sure that civil order is preserved, that there is food, that there is water, there is power – all the things that people need to make sure their daily lives go on,” Burt told BBC TV in an earlier interview.