'Saif al-Islam wanted to be with lovers, orgies'

Saif al-Islam was a womaniser who often indulged in domestic violence, according to a Ukrainian woman who claims to be a former wife of the captured son of slain Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Nadia, a blue-eyed brunette claims to have met Saif, now 39, when she was working as a stripper at a Moscow nightclub, and says that as she prepared for marriage to him, she had to fly to Paris to have an operation to "restore" her virginity.

"The doctor proved my innocence in the presence of Saif's aunt. Then I embraced Islam. I tried to have a normal family, but Saif wanted to live as single man with lovers and orgies," the 'Daily Mail' quoted her as telling a Ukrainian newspaper.

The 29-year-old woman added: "Our house looked like more as bordello: a lot of his friends and a lot of women. We got married under religious traditions. I embraced Islam for that, but nobody treated me as the mistress of the house.”

"My husband tried to make me a submissive Eastern woman and I couldn't stand that attitude. Saif took drugs and he couldn't control himself when he was under narcotics. He had certain sexual perversions in sex, for example, he liked to do it in public. I understood that we couldn't live together."

Nadia has claimed that their relationship ended after a furious row in a restaurant which culminated with him beating her and throwing her out of a window, but she miraculously survived though she was in a coma for 47 days.

Of Col Gaddafi himself, she said: "About me being in hospital, he was in a fury. He kicked Saif away to the desert. It could spoil the reputation of the family that was already not so clean."

She left Libya and returned to Moscow. 'The last time he came was in 2008, and he suggested that we lived together again -- but I was cold to him by that time," she said.

ICC: Saif al-Islam Gaddafi may try to flee Libya

The International Criminal Court is still receiving information that Muammar Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam may try to flee Libya with the help of mercenaries, the court's chief prosecutor said on Wednesday.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo also said he was investigating whether the former Libyan leader and his spy chief ordered mass rapes as they battled an insurgency earlier this year. Gaddafi died shortly after his capture last month by the former rebels, now the government forces.

But Ocampo told the UN Security Council his investigations would not be confined to Gaddafi's forces.

"There are allegations of crimes committed by NATO forces, allegations of crimes committed by NTC-related forces ... as well as allegations of additional crimes committed by pro-Gaddafi forces," he said in a speech to the council.

NATO has denied allegations that it deliberately targeted civilians during its seven-month campaign of air strikes against Gaddafi's forces, which ended on Monday. Libya's National Transitional Council has vowed to investigate alleged executions and abuse of suspected Gaddafi supporters.

Human rights groups have said that NTC forces singled out sub-Saharan African migrant workers for arbitrary arrest and detention due to assumptions that they supported Gaddafi.

Libya's interim leadership has said it would like to try Saif al-Islam and former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi in Libya. Both men have been indicted by the ICC for crimes against humanity and other war crimes.

"We are also receiving information that a group of mercenaries may be endeavoring to facilitate his (Saif al-Islam's) escape from Libya," Ocampo said. "We are calling upon states to do all they can to disrupt any such operation."

Saif al-Islam may be heading for Niger, which risks upsetting pro-Gaddafi Tuareg nomads if it hands him over to the ICC as it has promised to do if he shows up there.

Ocampo said people linked to Saif al-Islam had approached his office with questions "about the legal conditions attaching to his potential surrender to the court”.

They included "what would happen to him if he appeared before the judges, could he be sent back to Libya, what would happen if he were to be convicted, what would happen if he were acquitted?" The intermediaries were told it would be possible to request that Saif al-Islam not be returned to Libya.

However, Ocampo wrote in a report submitted to the 15-nation Security Council that it was also possible for both men to be tried in Libya if they submit a formal request. It would then be up to ICC judges to decide.

Another possibility, he said, was for the ICC to conduct its own trials inside Libya.

Libya's Deputy UN Ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi, in a speech to the council, did not make clear where he thought the two men should be tried if arrested but promised "consultation and close cooperation" with the court.

Dabbashi also said Libya's new rulers would make sure all those involved in crimes not covered by ICC jurisdiction received "transparent investigations and fair and just trials in Libyan courts”.

Ocampo's probe of crimes committed during eight months of violence and war in Libya resulted in new investigations, including the possible use of rape by Gaddafi's side to persecute their enemies.

Ocampo's office was interviewing potential witnesses who "indicated that Muammar Gaddafi, al-Senussi and other high officials were discussing the use of rape to persecute those considered dissidents or rebels."

The prosecutor's office was also searching for the personal assets of both Saif al-Islam and Senussi "for the potential benefit of the victims”. Ocampo urged all UN member states to help the court locate the two men.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice told the council Libyans could now rest assured that Gaddafi could never again persecute them the way he did for over four decades.

"But this does not and cannot justify the apparently brutal way that he met his death," she said. "We welcome the announcement of an investigation into Gaddafi's death."

ICC in contact with Gaddafi's son on surrender

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) today said his office is in indirect contact with Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, on his possible surrender to face charges for crimes against humanity.

"Through intermediaries, we have informal contact with Saif," ICC's chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said in a statement.

"The Office of the Prosecutor has made it clear that if he surrenders to the ICC, he has the right to be heard in court, he is innocent until proven guilty."

In June, The Hague-based ICC had issued arrest warrants against Gaddafi, his son and the country's intelligence chief, Abdullah al-Sanousi for their roles in attacks against protesters, hundreds of whom have been killed since the uprising began early this year against Gaddafi's regime as part of a wider pro- democracy movement across North Africa and the Middle East.

Moreno-Ocampo said his office is galvanising efforts to carry out the arrest warrants against al-Islam and Al Sanousi. A group of mercenaries is offering to move al-Islam to an African country.

His office is also exploring the possibility of intercepting any plane that might be transporting al- Islam in order to make the arrest.

"This is a legal process and if the judges decide that Saif is innocent, or has served his sentence, he can request the judges to send him to a different country as long as that country accepts him," Moreno-Ocampo added.

The prosecutor has said in the past that while Libya is not party to the 1998 Rome Statute, the treaty that had established the ICC, it has the primary responsibility to carry out the arrest warrants in compliance with relevant resolution of the Security Council.

The UN body had referred the crisis in Libya to ICC. Gaddafi was killed last week in his hometown of Sirte during the final days of the eight-month-long conflict.

Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC) had on Sunday declared full liberation of the country, days after Gaddafi's death.

The North African nation now faces a host of challenges, including organising an electoral process, establishing public security and starting a reconciliation process.