Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC) on Tuesday named a new government featuring several surprise appointments that suggested the line-up was aimed at trying to soothe rivalries between regional factions. Earlier, the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor conceded that the captured son of Muammar Qadhafi, Saif al-Islam, may be tried in Libya rather than in The Hague, meaning he faces the death penalty if convicted.
In forming a government, the NTC faced the tricky task of trying to reconcile regional and ideological interests whose rivalry threatens to upset the country's fragile stability, three months after the end of Qadhafi's 42-year rule. The new cabinet will include as defence minister Osama Al-Juwali, commander of the military council in the town of Zintan, NTC spokesman Mahmoud Shammam told reporters in Tripoli. Juwali appeared to have staked his claim to the job after his forces captured Saif al-Islam at the weekend and flew him to their hometown. The foreign minister was named as Ashour Bin Hayal, a little-known diplomat originally from Derna, in eastern Libya.
His appointment was unexpected as diplomats had predicted the job would go to Libya's deputy envoy to the United Nations, Ibrahim Dabbashi, who had rallied diplomats to turn against Qadhafi early in the revolt against his rule. Hassan Ziglam, an oil industry executive, was named as finance minister, and Abdulrahman Ben Yezza, a former executive with Italian oil major ENI, was made oil minister, Shammam said. The NTC spokesman was speaking to reporters who were waiting for prime minister designate Abdurrahim El-Keib to make an official announcement of the government line-up.
Libya is struggling to build new institutions out of the wreckage of Qadhafi's one-man rule, when corruption was rampant and state institutions were left to decay. The Hague-based ICC has indicted Saif al-Islam for crimes against humanity. But chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said on a visit to Tripoli that Saif al-Islam could be tried inside Libya as long as the trial complies with ICC standards. "Saif is captured so we are here to ensure co-operation. Now in May, we requested an arrest warrant because Libyans could not do justice in Libya. Now as Libyans are decided to do justice, they could do justice and we'll help them to do it, so that is the system," he told reporters on his arrival in Tripoli.
"Our International Criminal Court acts when the national system cannot act. They have decided to do it and that is why we are here to learn and to understand what they are doing and to cooperate." Libyan officials have promised a fair trial but the country still has the death penalty on its books, whereas the severest punishment the ICC can impose is life imprisonment.