Muammar Gadafy's son Saif al-Islam was today captured in the Libyan desert by fighters who vowed to hold him in the mountain town of Zintan until there was a government to hand him over to.
Gunfire and car horns expressed jubilation across Libya at the seizure of the British-educated 39-year-old, once heir-apparent to the leadership.
Saif, who had vowed to die fighting but was taken without firing a shot, was arrested, carrying a few thousand dollars, overnight, officials said. He was not injured during his seizure - unlike his father, who was killed a month ago on Sunday after being captured in his home town.
"At the beginning he was very scared. He thought we would kill him," Ahmed Ammar, one of his captors, told Reuters.
The anti-Gadafy fighter said his unit of 15 men in three vehicles, acting on a tip-off had intercepted two cars carrying Saif and four others in the desert about 70km from the small oil town of Obari overnight.
Saif told Reuters he was okay and that his hand was bandaged due to wounds sustained in a Nato air strike a month ago.
At one point, a crowd of hundreds thronged the runway in Zintan, preventing his captors removing the prisoner for an hour. Some people tried to board the plane but were held back by the fighters, who all came from Zintan.
Saif appeared relatively at ease and was not handcuffed as he sat on a bench at the rear of a Soviet-built cargo plane.
Justice Minister Mohammed al-Alagy announced the capture earlier today. Mr al-Alagy said Saif could face the death penalty. "He has instigated others to kill, has misused public funds, threatened and instigated and even took part in recruiting and bringing in mercenaries.
"This is just a small account of the crimes that the Libyan prosecutor general is going to bring against him." Asked if such crimes carried the death penalty, Mr Alagy, who has said he does not expect to retain his post in a new government due to be named in the coming days, said: "Yes."
ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said he would go to Libya in a week's time to discuss next steps after the capture.
However, a spokesman for Libya's outgoing interim government said Saif would be tried in the country rather than being sent to The Hague.
"This is the final chapter of the Libyan drama," Information Minister Mahmoud Shammam said. "We will put him on trial in Libya and he will be judged by Libyan law for his crimes."
The news broke as fighters from Zintan, a powerful faction among the many armed groups currently dominating Libya while the National Transitional Council tries to form a new government, started celebrating in Tripoli.
Bashir Thaelba, a Zintan field commander who had called a news conference on another issue, told reporters in the capital Saif would be held in Zintan until there was a government to hand him over to.
Prime minister-designate Abdurrahim El-Keib is scheduled to form a government by Tuesday, and the fate of Saif, whom Libyans want to try at home before, possibly, handing him over to the ICC, will be an early test of its authority.
His father's beating, abuse and ultimate death in the custody of former rebel fighters was an embarrassment to the previous transitional government. Officials in Tripoli said they were determined to handle his son's case with more order.
A fighter from the anti-Gadafy force that said it seized him in the wilderness near the oil town of Obari told Free Libya television: "We got a tip he had been staying there for the last month."
His father, the former Libyan leader, was killed a month ago after being captured in his hometown of Sirte on the coast.
The ICC prosecutor's office wrongly announced Saif's arrest in August, citing confidential information. He appeared in public two days later and the office admitted it had not received official confirmation.
In June the ICC issued arrest warrants for Gadafy, Saif and Libyan intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi on charges of crimes against humanity after the UN Security Council referred the Libyan crisis to the court in February.
The ICC said last month Saif was in contact via intermediaries about possibly surrendering, but that it also had information that mercenaries were trying to take him to a friendly African nation where he could evade arrest.
Reuters