Gaddafi’s widow demands for United Nations inquiry into dictator death.
Muammar Gaddafi’s widow, Safia has backed international demands yesterday for an inquiry into colonel killing.
It appears that rebel fighters executed the wounded Muammar Gaddafi having captured him alive.
Libyan officials of the ruling National Transitional Council were forced to delay Muammar Gaddafi secret burial for further examination of his battered body.
Muammar Gaddafi’s widow, Safia has backed international demands yesterday for an inquiry into colonel killing
A recently released video, which apparently shows the moment that Muammar Gaddafi, 69, was pulled from his hole and led to a jeep, may shed light on how dictator came to be killed.
The new video is a shaky mobile phone footage that shows a dozen of rebels surrounding the bloodied Gaddafi, who is hoarse and barely audible.
Muammar Gaddafi says: “What are you doing? It’s not allowed in Islamic law. What you are doing is forbidden.
“What you’re doing is wrong, guys. Do you know what is right or wrong?”
And the young men are heard screaming: “Muammar, you dog!”.
Muammar Gaddafi gestures to the young men to be patient, and says “What’s going on?” as he wipes fresh blood from his temple and glances at his palm.
A young rebel fighter later is shown carrying a boot and screaming: “This is Muammar’s shoe! This is Muammar’s shoe! Victory! Victory!”
“Keep him alive, keep him alive!” someone shouts.
Another rebel screams: “God is great. God is omnipotent.”
And as Gaddafi begs for mercy, a fighter says: “Shut up, you dog.”
At that moment gun fire from an automatic-rile is heard and the recording ends. However, there were only signs on his corpse of wounds from handguns and the time of death is understood to have been less than an hour later.
Omran Jouma Shawan, one of the rebels who said he took part in the capture claimed Muammar Gaddafi was shot and wounded at the last minute by one of his own men.
“One of Muammar Gaddafi’s guards shot him in the chest,” said Omran Jouma Shawan.
Both Amnesty International and the United Nations called for investigations into Muammar Gaddafi’s death, a call echoed by his widow, Safia, from her exile in neighbouring Algeria.
Syrian TV quoted Safia as calling on the UN to investigate and saying she was proud of the courage shown by her husband and children.
Muammar Gaddafi’s widow, Safia
In a statement, the Gaddafi’s family asked for the bodies of dictator, his son Mutassim, and others who were killed on Thursday by fighters who overran his hometown Sirte.
“We call on the UN, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference and Amnesty International to force the [National] Transitional Council to hand over the martyrs’ bodies to our tribe in Sirte and to allow them to perform their burial ceremony in accordance with Islamic customs and rules.”
According to TV reports in Dubai and Jordan yesterday, Muammar Gaddafi’s daughter Aisha called her father’s mobile phone after seeing reports in Algeria that he had been captured and was answered by rebels. Aisha screamed at them and called them “rats”.
Muammar Gaddafi’s shooting has raised unwanted questions about the ability of the new leadership to control the men with guns, as well as causing discomfort for Western allies about respect for justice and human rights among those who claimed to be fighting for just those ideals.
A series of graphic videos apparently taken on mobile phones clearly shows Muammar Gaddafi alive after being pulled from a concrete sewer in his home city of Sirte on Thursday morning, being manhandled by NTC fighters and then his dead body being dragged along a pavement.
Muammar Gaddafi’s son Mutassim, who commanded the defence of Sirte, was also killed after capture.
Yesterday, Mutassim’s body, scarred by numerous cigarette burns, was laid out beside his father’s in a makeshift mortuary at an old meat store in the coastal city of Misrata.
Muammar Gaddafi’s and his son Mutassim bodies were laid out in a makeshift mortuary at an old meat store in the coastal city of Misrata
United Nations human rights spokesman, Rupert Colville said: “There seem to be four or five different versions of how he died.
“If you take these videos together, they are rather disturbing because you see someone who has been captured alive and then you see the same person dead.
“We feel that it is very important that there is a serious investigation into what caused his death.”
According to a post-mortem report read by Libya’s Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril, Muammar Gaddafi was hauled unresisting from the sewer pipe, shot in the arm and put in a truck which was “caught in crossfire” as it ferried him to hospital.
Dr. Ibrahim Tika, who examined the bodies in Misrata yesterday, said:
“There was a bullet and that was the primary reason for his death, it penetrated his gut. . . then there was another bullet that went in and out of his head.”
Forensic report and medical evidence appear to support the claims of fighters involved in Gaddafi’s capture, who said in the immediate aftermath that he had been shot in the stomach.
United Nations officials said an investigation would need to examine the “wealth” of video footage which showed a crowd of fighters shoving and pulling the balding Gaddafi, blood splattered on his face and soaking his shirt after he was dragged from the pipe.
The controversy delayed Muammar Gaddafi’s burial which under Islamic custom is meant to take place within 24 hours of death.
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