21 November, 2011

Libya and the foreign busybodies

Following the arrest of Col. Gaddafi's favourite son, Saif-al-Islam, a rather curious thing happened. Someone from the International Criminal Court in The Hague flew down to Libya to ask if he could be tried there.

Now, there is a case, where a new nation hasn't got its institutions together, for criminals to be tried elsewhere, although not much of a case, in my view. But the whole purpose of our intervention in Libya was to make it a cohesive nation, to stop one part attacking its own side, and to build the blocks of a proper state with laws, justice and so on. you would have thought that Libya was in a good position to hold a trial.

Instead we have a curious system of an international body bidding for the ability to put someone on trial. Why? Why are we paying for Libya to be a proper nation based on the rules of law, and at the same time paying for another body to tell them they aren't capable of holding a trial which that body deems important? Have the ICC been trying to involve themselves in Burma, Zimbabwe, China? No.

Saif-al-Islam should receive a proper trial according to the laws of the country where he was born, lived and committed his alleged crimes,

The sooner this bogus international body is closed down the better.

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