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deep in the Sahara desert yesterday after a cleric prayed over his decomposing corpse, an official said.
The National Transitional Council had disquieted many outsiders by putting the bodies of Gaddafi and his son Mutassim on show in a meat locker in the coastal city of Misrata until their decay forced them on Monday to close the doors.
Under pressure from Western allies, the NTC promised on Monday to investigate how Gaddafi and his son were killed – graphic mobile phone footage shows both alive after their capture.
The former Libyan leader was seen being mocked and beaten before he was shot, in what NTC officials say was crossfire.
“The process leading to his burial is taking place now,” NTC official Abdel Majid Mlegta told Reuters by telephone from Libya.
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“Only two trusted people were assigned to this secret mission.
“These are not guards, but very trusted NTC people.”
Final Islamic prayers were said over the two bodies by Col Gaddafi’s personal cleric Khaled Tantoush, who was arrested with him, before they were removed from the Misrata compound where Libyans had filed past their ex-strongman sprawled on a mattress in what became a grim parody of the lying-in-state ceremony.
Unconfirmed reports said last Moslem rites were also attended by two of Col Gaddafi’s cousins, Mansour Dhao Ibrahim, once leader of the feared People’s Guard, and Ahmed Ibrahim, who were both captured with Gaddafi after their convoy was attacked in a NATO air strike near Sirte, Gaddafi’s home town, just after it had fallen.
“The NTC officials were handed the body after the sheikh completed the early morning ceremony and are taking him somewhere very far away into the desert,” Mlegta said, without saying where.
“Trust me, it takes time and the burial will take place far away from the media.”
The NTC leadership appears to have decided that an anonymous grave would at least ensure the plot did not become a shrine.
The killing of the 69-year-old Gaddafi ended eight months of war, finally ending a nervous two-month hiatus since the NTC’s motley forces overran the capital Tripoli.
But it also threatened to lay bare the regional and tribal rivalries that present the NTC with its biggest challenge.
An NTC official had told Reuters several days ago that officials entrusted with the burial would all have to swear on the Koran never to reveal its location. Human Rights Watch has urged Libya’s interim government to probe the killing of 53 people whose decaying bodies were found in Sirte. The watchdog is charging that some of Col Gaddafi loyalists appeared to have been executed.
Yesterday, the rights group raised concerns about the vast stockpiles of unguarded weapons in the area around the city, and called on the NTC to secure these sites to prevent further looting. – Reuters/AFP.
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