Gaddafi's Body To Go To His Extended Family

Islam Times: The National Transitional Council's (NTC) foreign affairs spokesman Ahmed Jibreel said the handover may be imminent.

But he admitted it had not yet been decided where the dictator will be buried.

Mr Jibreel told Sky News: "I think the decision has been taken already, which is to hand over the body of Gaddafi to his extended family.

"There are consultations between the NTC and with people from Sirte on whom the body should be handed over to.

"Some [relatives] are in Sirte and some in other cities. We expect this to happen very soon. If not in the coming hours, it will be in a few days."

He added: "There are consultations between the NTC and Gaddafi's family. It is in the interests of his family and the whole country to bury Gaddafi in a secret place but this has not been decided yet."

n keeping with Islamic law, Gaddafi's body should have been buried within 24 hours of his death.

But it has been delayed by wrangling within the NTC about what to do and controversy over how he died.

The corpse is currently being kept in a chiller room in a shopping centre in Misratah, alongside the bodies of his son Mutassim and a key aide.

Hundreds of Libyans have been queueing to see the tyrant's bloodied body then recording the grim scene on their mobile phones.

It had earlier been uncovered but has now been wrapped in a blanket so that only his head is exposed.

One witness says the dictator's head has also been turned to the left, making a bullet hole in his temple no longer visible.

Gaddafi's surviving family, who are in exile, have asked that the corpses be handed over to tribal kinsmen from Sirte.

NTC officials are trying to arrange a secret resting place to avoid loyalist supporters making it a shrine.

A tribal burial would echo the fate of Saddam Hussein and his sons, though their graves are known.

Gaddafi's family and international human rights groups have also called for an inquiry into how the 69-year-old was killed.

He was filmed being hauled away from the storm drain in Sirte still alive but later sustained fatal gunshot wounds.

The NTC have insisted he was caught in crossfire between loyalists and anti-Gaddafi troops but witnesses say he was assassinated.

A military commander in Misratah said they were "over-enthusiastic". "We wanted to keep him alive. But the young guys... Things went out of control," he said.

Meanwhile, Libya's interim premier Mahmoud Jibril has confirmed he will step down after seven months in power as the country celebrates its "liberation".

Its freedom is set to be formally declared in Benghazi on Sunday - the location a recognition of the city's key role in the uprising.

Mr Jibril said the country's leaders needed to show "resolve in the next few days" to avoid Libya descending into in-fighting and factionalism.

"First," he said, "What kind of resolve the NTC will show in the next few days. And the other thing depends mainly on the Libyan people - whether they differentiate between the past and the future."

He continued: "I am counting on them to look ahead and remember the kind of agony they went through in the last 42 years. We need to seize this very limited opportunity."

NTC chaiman Mustafa Abdel Jalil will formally declare an end to the war and Libya's "liberation" from 42 years of Gaddafi rule on Sunday.

The announcement will set a clock ticking on a plan for a new government and constitutional assembly leading to full democracy in 2013.

Mr Jibril reaffirmed on Saturday that the plan was for elections to the body that will draft a constitution to be held in eight months.

But there are fears peace is far from assured, particularly given the brutal manner of Gaddafi's death.

One field commander in Misratah said: "The fear now is what is going to happen next."

"There is going to be regional in-fighting. You have Zintan and Misratah on one side and then Benghazi and the east.

"There is in-fighting even inside the army. The cake is now, and everybody wants a piece."

Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam is also still unaccounted for, amid fears he could become a rallying point for loyalists.

NTC officials believe he escaped after the airstrike on Sirte scattered a convoy of vehicles trying to flee with his father.

Intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi, the third man wanted by the International Criminal Court, managed to reach Niger, officials have said.

Gaddafi's daughter Aisha, her mother and two of her brothers fled to Algeria after the fall of Tripoli. Aisha gave birth on the day she arrived.