On Monday, 31 March, Libyan state-run television broadcast a segment of a video recording of Al-Saadi Gaddafi speaking to investigators about his relationship with Ibrahim Al-Jadhran who was dismissed as commander of the Petroleum Facilities Guards in June 2013 and is currently head of a militia controlled by pro-federalist forces in eastern Libya. In the video clip, the son of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi reveals how he would contact Al-Jadhran via “cells” that he had controlled from Niger where he had resided since he fled the Libyan capital after it fell to revolutionaries in September 2011. Al-Saadi also confessed to his connection with the so-called “National Movement”, which he described as a collection of remnants of the Revolutionary Committees Movement and a group of former ministers from his father's era. Al-Saadi then spoke of the relationship between Al-Jadhran and the Ahmed Gaddaf Al-Damm group that has been based in Cairo since its rupture with the Gaddafi regime during the Libyan Revolution. In addition, he confessed to having had knowledge of the oil deal with the Morning Glory. Last month, the stateless tanker had entered Al-Sadra oil exporting port, controlled by Al-Jadhran, and filled up on what Libyan authorities charged was an illicit shipment of oil that had initially been thought destined for North Korea. The vessel was subsequently intercepted and boarded by US Navy Seals stationed in the Mediterranean, south of Cyprus, and returned to Libya. According to Al-Saadi in his confessions, the oil sale was in exchange for arms for Al-Jadhran's militia. There had previously been communications between Al-Jadhran and North Korea on that matter, he said. In these videotaped confessions, Al-Saadi Gaddafi described the network of messengers that he had operated and used in order to communicate with Al-Jadhran. He said that the cells were organised into various levels and that they spanned from Sirte to Cyrenaica. Al-Jadhran was pledged to arm the cells in Sirte and southern Libya. The south has recently been the scene of tensions and armed clashes between the ethnically Arab Awlad Suleiman tribes and the ethnically African Tabou tribes that have extensions in Chad. The fighting resulted in numerous casualties on both sides. Heavy weapons such as artillery missiles and mortar bombs were used in the hostilities, causing considerable material damage in many quarters of the southern Libyan city of Sabha. In the televised video recording, Al-Saadi Gaddafi appears sitting on a chair in an office. As he speaks it is clear that he is aware that he is being filmed. According to the television channel that broadcast the film, its publication had previously been prohibited due to security reasons. However, the public prosecutor had just authorised its broadcast. Speaking to Al-Ahram Weekly by phone from the Libyan capital, Deputy Minister of Defence Khaled Al-Sherif, who oversees Hadba Prison where key figures of the former regime are detained, explained why the video had remained confidential until a week ago. He said that Libyan Public Prosecutor Judge Abdel-Qader Radwan had instructed prison authorities not to broadcast the videotape so as not to prejudice the investigation process that was then in progress on Al-Saadi Gaddafi. He added that the prosecutor had also asked to see the film before it was broadcast on state television. After having watched it, the public prosecutor approved the broadcast of Al-Saadi's confessions. He felt that it was important that public opinion in Libya know the truth about what was actually happening in the crisis surrounding the blockade of the oil exporting ports. Speaking to London's The Times, former interim prime minister Ali Zeidan charged that Al-Saadi's confessions were made under the pressures of blackmail and torture, which therefore cast doubt on their veracity. However, in the video Gaddafi's son appears calm and seemingly unbruised. Last week, the Libyan public prosecutor ordered the release of non-Libyan members of the Morning Glory crew. The three Al-Jadhran militiamen who had been aboard remained in detention pending investigations with them on the blockade of the oil ports. However, Al-Jadhran has insisted on their release and on the return of the oil tanker before engaging in talks with the central government in order to resolve that crisis and permit for the resumption of oil exports. In a related development, the EU Parliament's foreign affairs committee organised a discussion session on the security and political situation in Libya. Held on Monday, 31 March, it focused on a report submitted by the director of the Berlin-based International Centre for Democracy and Political Participation, Michael Meier-Reisendi, and rights activist Jan Vidky. The study, which also compares current conditions in Libya with those in Tunisia and Egypt, concludes that the situation in Libya could be kept from deteriorating further and remedied under certain conditions. Prime among these was for the Libyans to be serious in reaching a consensus over the creation of a constitution that would guarantee lasting stability. The authors observed that Tunisia's experience in a successful transitional process should serve as a model for the Libyans who needed to adopt the principle of gradual consensus-making and to accept the need for certain sacrifices in order to achieve an element of decentralisation, the just distribution of wealth and a reconciliation between the demands of agencies that act in the name of religion and parties that seek to establish the foundations of the rule of law and an institutionalised state. The report noted a number of points on which Libyan opinion was united. For example, Libyans agree that any forthcoming constitution must include explicit guarantees on the protection of human rights, a clear delineation of the boundaries of the executive authority, and a shift away from the current over-centralisation. As such issues were being discussed in Europe, the General National Congress (GNC), the highest sovereign authority in Libya, has opened the door to talks between the various political forces over a candidate for the position of interim prime minister. The position has been filled by Defence Minister Abdullah Al-Thinni since Ali Zeidan's ouster by a no-confidence vote three weeks ago.
