International Criminal Court judges will on Monday decide whether to issue an arrest warrant for Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi for crimes against humanity, the court said on its web site.
The ICC prosecution has requested three arrest warrants for Gaddafi, his son Seif al-Islam and the head of Libyan intelligence, Abdullah al-Senussi, the court said.
ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo opened an inquiry into Libya on March 3. He has said that Gaddafi personally ordered attacks against unarmed civilians and held meetings with his son and intelligence chief 'to plan and manage the operations'.
A public hearing will be held at the court on Monday at 1:00pm (1100 GMT).
Moreno-Ocampo said in a recent interview that he hoped the arrest warrants would be issued soon.
'We are working on the assumption he (Gaddafi) will be arrested by his people, by members of his regime' and if 'that is not possible by the (rebel) National Transitional Council,' he told the Spanish newspaper El Mundo on June 12.
Libya's deputy foreign minister Khaled Kaaim retorted that Tripoli was 'not concerned' by ICC decisions since it was not a party to the Rome Statute that founded the ICC.
But Moreno-Ocampo argued that Libya is bound to cooperate with the court as demanded by a UN Security Council resolution adopted on February 26.
And he maintained that Libya would be legally required to act on the arrest warrants if they are approved by the ICC judges.
The uprising against the Gaddafi regime which began in February has led to thousands of deaths, the ICC prosecutor said. Nearly 750,000 people have fled the country, according to the UN.
Meanwhile in Tripoli, Gaddafi said he had his 'back to the wall' but did not fear death, as NATO insisted there would be no let-up in its air war despite Italian calls for a cessation.
'We will resist and the battle will continue to the beyond, until you're wiped out. But we will not be finished,' Gaddafi said in an audio message broadcast on Libyan television late on Wednesday.
'There's no longer any agreement after you killed our children and our grandchildren... We have our backs to the wall. You (the West) can move back,' the strongman said in homage to his comrade Khuwildi Hemidi, several members of whose family were killed Monday in reported NATO raids on his residence.
'We are not frightened. We are not trying to live or escape,' Gaddafi said, denouncing what we called a crusade against a Muslim country targeting civilians and children.
NATO has acknowledged its warplanes early on Monday hit Sorman west of Tripoli but insisted the target was military, a precision air strike against a 'high-level' command and control node.
Libyan government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim said 15 people, including three children, were killed in the attack, which he slammed as a 'cowardly terrorist act which cannot be justified.'
Gaddafi promised to build a monument, 'the highest in North Africa,' to four-year-old Khaleda, Hemidi's grand-daughter who the authorities said was killed in the raid.
'We will stay, we will resist and we will not give in. Strike with your missiles, two, three, 10 or 100 years,' Gaddafi said.
Source : New Age
