French lawyers plan Libya lawsuit against Sarkozy

By AFP

TRIPOLI — Two French lawyers said they planned to initiate legal proceedings against French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday for crimes against humanity over the NATO-led military campaign in Libya.

A Libyan justice ministry official Ibrahim Boukhzam told reporters in Tripoli that Jacques Verges and Roland Dumas had offered to represent families he said were victims of the NATO bombing campaign.

"The two lawyers are going to file a complaint in the French courts in the name of the Libyan families," Boukhzam said, at a press conference on Sunday attended by 30 representatives of the families.

Verges, whose past clients include Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie and Carlos the Jackal, denounced a "French state led by hoodlums and killers.

"We are going to break the wall of silence," he added.

Dumas, a former socialist minister, said the NATO mission, which was meant to protect civilians, was in fact killing them.

He denounced what he described as "a brutal assault against a sovereign country" and said he was ready to defend Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi should he ever be brought before the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Earlier this month ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked for arrest warrants for Kadhafi, his son Seif al-Islam, and his brother-in-law Abdullah Senussi as part of an investigation into crimes against humanity.

On March 19, Sarkozy announced the launch of military action in Libya, backed by Western countries and Arab allies, as Kadhafi's forces threatened the rebel-held city of Benghazi.

A French warplane was the first to enforce a UN resolution calling for a no-fly zone and protection of civilians in Libya.

Dumas and Verges were speaking at the end of a two-day visit to Libya. They said they would begin legal proceedings on their return to France on Monday.