Niger Will Not Extradite Gadhafi Son

(NewsCore) - Niger will not extradite Saadi Gadhafi even though the son of the slain Libyan leader violated his asylum conditions with "subversive" comments in a television interview, officials said Saturday.

"Our position remains the same -- we will hand Saadi Gadhafi to a government that has an independent and impartial justice system," government spokesman Marou Amadou told reporters in Niamey.

Saadi, who took refuge in Niger after the fall of Tripoli ended his father Moammar Gadhafi's 42-year rule of Libya, told Al Arabiya television by telephone that he would return to his country and said a nationwide rebellion was brewing against its new rulers.

"I will return to Libya at any time," he said.

"There is a rebellion that is going on day after day, and there will be a rebellion in the entire country," he said, adding that the Libyans were ruled "by gangs."

Libya's ruling Transitional National Council (TNC) responded with a renewed call to the Niger authorities to extradite Saadi, saying that relations between the two neighbors were at risk.

Amadou said that the comments were "subversive and unfortunate" and that all former close aides to the slain ruler who had taken refuge in Niger "must abstain from all agitation, all subversive behavior."

"We would like to say to the TNC that Niger's government in no way approved or prompted this business, and we also are badly disappointed," Amadou said. "It is with great bitterness that I say that Saadi Gadhafi, in predicting an imminent uprising in Libya, has contravened the terms and conditions under which we took him in."

But "our position is simple, we cannot deliver someone to a place where he risks being put to death and where he is not likely to have a dignified trial," he said.

Amadou said that the surveillance of Saadi had been seriously strengthened and the government was considering sanctions against those who were guarding him.

He added that Niger had authorized the International Criminal Court to take over the case but it had not responded.

Saadi, 38, took refuge in Libya's southern neighbor last September. Niamey has refused to extradite him despite repeated requests from the new Libyan authorities.

"The TNC requests to the government of Niger to immediately hand over Saadi and other fugitives to the Libyan authorities to maintain its interests and relations with the Libyan people," spokesman Mohamed Nasr al Harizi said in a statement Saturday.

Copyright 2012 AFP. All rights reserved.