Tunisia to extradite Gaddafi's ex-PM

Tunisia will extradite former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's prime minister to Libya and the handover could take place in "days or weeks", Justice Minister Noureddine Bouheiri yesterday said.
Should he be handed over, Al Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi would be the first senior official to be sent back for trial under Libya's transitional leadership and his extradition could establish a precedent for other countries who have given refuge to or arrested members of Gaddafi's old entourage.
Mahmoudi served as the Libyan dictator's prime minister from 2006 until he fled to neighboring Tunisia around the time that rebel fighters took the capital Tripoli in August.
A Tunisian court ruled as far back as November that Mahmoudi should be extradited.
But President Moncef al-Marzouki later said the handover would not happen until the situation in Libya had stabilised and Mahmoudi could be guaranteed a fair trial after Gaddafi himself was killed by rebels and his rotting corpse left on display.
Officials from Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC), in power since Gaddafi's ouster, have long called on their North African neighbor to turn over Mahmoudi for trial.
An NTC spokesman welcomed the news but said there were no firm arrangements yet in place for the move.
"We have been expecting Mahmoudi to be sent back to us because we negotiated this with the Tunisians and now they are fulfilling their promise to us," NTC spokesman Mohammed al-Harizy said.