Gadhafi's spy chief extradited to Libya

Senoussi was taken to Tripoli on a special flight

 The man accused of having helped orchestrate some of the worst crimes committed by the regime of ex-Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has been extradited back to Libya, according to a Mauritanian government statement.

The communique carried by national radio and on Mauritania’s official news agency said Abdullah al-Senoussi, who ran Gadhafi's feared intelligence service, was sent back to Libya, giving no further details. An official in the ministry of foreign affairs, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the matter, said that al-Senoussi boarded a special flight at 9 am local time and was headed to Tripoli.

Libya, the International Criminal Court as well as France had all asked to try the former intelligence chief, who is known as Gadhafi's “black box.” He is accused of complicity in the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, as well as the Abu Salim prison massacre of more than 1,200 prisoners by Gadhafi's regime in 1996.

Al-Senoussi was arrested at Mauritania's international airport in March, where he showed up disguised as a Tuareg chieftain, wearing flowing robes and a turban. He was traveling on a fake passport. For months, Mauritania resisted calls to hand him over, insisting that their laws had been violated and that he should be tried on Mauritanian soil.

Oriane Maillet, a spokeswoman for the international tribunal in The Hague, said the court has received no information yet from Libyan authorities on the transfer of al-Senoussi. US House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who led a delegation to the region, told reporters in Tripoli earlier this year that the US had a “particular interest because of his role with the Lockerbie bombing.”