The Tripoli Court of Appeal postponed the trial hearing of the Director of General Intelligence in the Gaddafi regime, Abdullah Al-Senussi, to February 5, after a cross-chair hearing was conducted using closed video conference.
The court said that the trial hearing took place under the supervision of the Supreme Judicial Council, in which the judge confronted the accused of the charges against him.
During his first appearance in court, Al-Senussi denied the charges, and demanded that his lawyer defend him after the chairman of the court authorized that following the opening of the pleadings, as Al-Senussi’s defense lawyer presented a lengthy explanation and answers with arguments and documents in favor of his client.
Al-Senussi claimed that a number of evidence and actions that he described as fabricated against him, justifying it with witnesses according to the court, and demanding permission for a visit by his family in prison, given the deterioration of his health condition.
The judge of the court ordered the Public Prosecution to monitor the health of the accused in prison and provide the necessary care he needs, after the defense lawyer demanded that his client be released due to health reasons.
The trial proceedings witnessed a request from the Public Prosecution to impose the most severe punishment against the actions carried out by Al-Senussi against Libyans during his tenure as intelligence chief.
Al-Senussi appeared before the court for the first time on January 22 after it was postponed 9 times due to his failure to attend the session, according to his lawyer Ahmed Nashad, amid accusations from his defense team against the executive authority of “deliberately disallowing him to attend."
Abdullah Al-Senussi, who is in prison, faces several charges, especially the suppression of protesters during the February 17 Revolution in 2011. He is the first convict of being behind the Abu Salim prison massacre in 1996. He left Libya after the fall of Gaddafi’s regime, then was arrested in 2012, after arriving from Morocco to Mauritania carrying a forged passport.
A death sentence was issued against Al-Senussi in 2015 in the Abu Salim massacre case, but the court ruled at the end of 2019 to drop charges against all defendants in the case, before the Supreme Court overturned the ruling and put it to retrial.
