ABSTRACT
Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi, son of the late Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi, has been held in arbitrary incommunicado detention by the Zintan militia in Libya following the 2011 NATO intervention which overturned his father’s regime. He received the death penalty in 2015 after a domestic trial went ahead in spite of the ICC admissibility ruling deeming Libya unfit to try him and calling for his handover to the Hague where he is wanted for ‘crimes against humanity’. Despite there not being any signs of life since 2014, claims of his release and appointment of legal representation circulated in mid-2016. His fate remains in limbo and a point of international contention.
This seminar features Oxford-based International Relations scholar and rights advocate Dr Mishana Hosseinioun and eminent barrister and former ICTY Prosecutor Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, a chief member of Dr Hosseinioun’s international legal team. They will discuss their exhaustive efforts and submissions before the ICC and African Commission and Court of Human Rights on behalf of Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi, leading to a landmark African Court default judgment rebuking Libya over his detention and lack of due process.
BIO
Sir Geoffrey Nice QC has practised as a barrister since 1971. He worked at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia – the ICTY – between 1998 and 2006 and led the prosecution of Slobodan Milošević, former President of Serbia. Much of his work since has been connected to cases before the permanent International Criminal Court – Sudan, Kenya, Libya – or pro bono for victims groups – Iran, Burma, North Korea – whose cases cannot get to any international court. He works for several related NGO’s and lectures and commentates in the media in various countries on international war crimes issues. He has been a part-time judge since 1984 sitting at the Old Bailey and has sat as judge in other jurisdictions, tribunals and inquiries. Between 2009 and 2012 he was Vice-Chair of the Bar Standards Board, the body that regulates barristers.
Dr. Mishana Hosseinioun is Justice advocate and International Relations and Middle East scholar, Dr Mishana Hosseinioun is president of MH Group, a global consultancy specialising in high profile international legal and diplomatic case files before such platforms as the African Commission and Court of Human Rights and the International Criminal Court in the Hague. Dr Hosseinioun is an Associate Member of the Department of Politics and International Relations at Oxford University and SCR Member of St Antony’s College. Her forthcoming book is titled, Before the Day Dawneth: The Paradox of Progress in the Middle East.
