The Criminal Chamber of the Tripoli Court of Appeal postponed the trial of the of the Gaddafi regime's spy chief, Abdullah Senussi, to July 17, as his lawyer Ahmed Nashad said that the reason for the postponement was that Senussi did not appear before the court, accusing the executive authority of forcing his absence.
Nashad explained to the press that the member of the prosecution stated in the session that he had officially addressed the security authorities detaining Senussi with the need to bring him to court, indicating that the responsibility now rested with the Attorney General in his capacity as the one responsible for the public case and for implementing the court's decision.
Nashad added that Senussi faces charges related to events that took place during the February 2011 revolution, stressing the defense team's readiness to respond to all those charges and make an official plea, noting that this requires Senussi to attend the trial session. He referred to the visit of the Senussi family and his wife to prison last week when he was informed of the death of his son.
Senussi faces several charges, including the crackdown against protesters during the revolution of February 17, 2011. He is the first senior official among those accused of being behind the Abu Salim prison massacre in 1996. He left Libya after the fall of the Gaddafi regime, then he was arrested in 2012, when he arrived in Mauritania coming from Morocco carrying a forged passport.
A death sentence was issued against Senussi in 2015 in the case of the Abu Salim massacre, but the court ruled in 2019 to drop the charges against all the defendants in the case, before the Supreme Court overturned the ruling and conducted a retrial.
