<p>Tunisia has extradited former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s prime minister to Libya, a Libyan security official said on Sunday, making him the first senior official to be sent back for trial under the country’s transitional leadership.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Defence ministry official Mohammed al-Ahwal told Reuters that a helicopter transferred Al Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi to Tripoli on Sunday.<br /><br />“Mahmoudi is now in Tripoli and we are holding him in a prison,” Ahwal said.Mahmoudi served as the Libyan dictator’s prime minister from 2006 until he fled to neighbouring Tunisia around the time that rebel fighters took the capital Tripoli in August.<br /><br />His extradition could establish a precedent for other countries who have given refuge to or arrested members of Gadhafi’s old entourage.<br /><br />Tripoli considers it a matter of national pride and a measure of the country’s transformation that trials of people like Mahmoudi and Gadhafi’s imprisoned son Saif al-Islam be held in Libya.<br /><br />But human rights groups question whether its justice system can meet the standards of international law and say he should be handed over to the ICC instead.<br /><br />A Tunisian court ruled as far back as November that Mahmoudi should be extradited. But Tunisian 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.<br /></p>
<p>Tunisia has extradited former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s prime minister to Libya, a Libyan security official said on Sunday, making him the first senior official to be sent back for trial under the country’s transitional leadership.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Defence ministry official Mohammed al-Ahwal told Reuters that a helicopter transferred Al Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi to Tripoli on Sunday.<br /><br />“Mahmoudi is now in Tripoli and we are holding him in a prison,” Ahwal said.Mahmoudi served as the Libyan dictator’s prime minister from 2006 until he fled to neighbouring Tunisia around the time that rebel fighters took the capital Tripoli in August.<br /><br />His extradition could establish a precedent for other countries who have given refuge to or arrested members of Gadhafi’s old entourage.<br /><br />Tripoli considers it a matter of national pride and a measure of the country’s transformation that trials of people like Mahmoudi and Gadhafi’s imprisoned son Saif al-Islam be held in Libya.<br /><br />But human rights groups question whether its justice system can meet the standards of international law and say he should be handed over to the ICC instead.<br /><br />A Tunisian court ruled as far back as November that Mahmoudi should be extradited. But Tunisian 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.<br /></p>