Gaddafi daughter files war crimes charge against NATO

BRUSSELS — Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi’s daughter filed a war crimes complaint against NATO in Belgium Tuesday, claiming it knowingly bombing a civilian target, killing her daughter and other family members.

By (AFP)

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Published: Thu 9 Jun 2011, 1:08 AM

Last updated: Mon 6 Apr 2015, 10:28 PM

The complaint, a copy of which was seen by AFP, relates to an April 30 NATO assault on Tripoli, which, according to Libyan officials, killed the strongman’s youngest son and three grand-children.

“The decision by NATO to target a civilian home in Tripoli constitutes a war crime,” said Luc Brossollet, one of Aisha Gaddafi’s lawyers.

The complaint was filed with the prosecution service in Brussels and a federal judge.

Gaddafi's daughter “in her capacity as a mother, an aunt and a sister, suffered considerable prejudice, unquestionably related to (the April 30 bombing),” the text of the complaint said.

Aisha’s brother, Seif al-Arab Gaddafi, 29, her four-month-old daughter Mastoura, and nephews Seif and Carthage, both two years old, died in the raid, according to officials in Tripoli.

“The target was a civilian building, inhabited by civilians and was neither a command post nor a military control centre” of the Libyan regime, the complaint said.

Brossollet said NATO commanders were fully aware of the nature of the target when they planned the assault.

Aisha Kadhafi’s lawyers argue that Belgian courts have jurisdiction over NATO as the military alliance is headquartered in Brussels.

NATO began bombing various sites in Libya following a UN Security Resolution authorising the use of military force to protect civilians against attacks by the Gaddafiregime.


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