Rebels appeal for Gaddafi capture

25 August 2011 Last updated at 04:34 GMT The BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes came under fire as fighting continued in Gaddafi's compound

Libyan rebels have announced an amnesty for anyone within Col Muammar Gaddafi's "inner circle" who captures or kills him, and a $1.7m (£1m) reward.

Col Gaddafi's whereabouts are unknown, though rebels have said they think he is still in or around Tripoli.

Rebels fighters have fought running battles in the capital, where pockets of pro-Gaddafi resistance remain.

The fugitive leader has vowed in an audio message to fight until victory or martyrdom.

His sprawling Bab al-Aziziya compound was overrun on Tuesday, though firefights within the complex have continued.

Col Gaddafi's forces are still firmly in control of his birthplace - the strategic coastal city of Sirte - as well as several key bases in southern Libya.

'Huge incentive'

The head of the National Transitional Council (NTC), Mustafa Abdel Jalil, announced the amnesty offer from the eastern city of Benghazi.

"Gaddafi's forces and his accomplices will not stop resisting until Gaddafi is caught or killed," he said.

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Libyan rebels as well as Nato officials will be hoping that the hunt for Col Muammar Gaddafi does not turn into a protracted affair. ”

End Quote Gordon Corera Security correspondent, BBC News He added that the NTC supported an offer by a group of businessmen to pay $1.7m for Col Gaddafi, "dead or alive".

Rebel spokesman Guma el-Gamaty told the BBC that those around Col Gaddafi were "heavily implicated with him in crimes against humanity and crimes against the Libyan people".

"Now there is a huge psychological incentive for them. If they don't want to go down with him and save their skin, they will be immune from prosecution if they hand him over or kill him," he said.

The rebel leadership have also offered Col Gaddafi safe passage out of the country, if he renounces his leadership.

Mr Gamaty said such a possibility was remote.

"I think [Col Gaddafi] would rather die or be captured than do that," he said.

'Tactical move'

Despite thousands of rebel fighters overrunning Col Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziya compound in Tripoli on Tuesday, they were still meeting fierce resistance from well-armed loyalists a day later.

Rebel spokesman Guma el-Gamaty explains the amnesty for anyone who captures or kills Col Gaddafi

Col Gaddafi is also believed to retain a strong following in two other cities - Sirte, his hometown 450km (280 miles) to the east of the capital, and Sabha, 650km to the south in the desert.

A rebel spokesman told the BBC that negotiations were going on with local leaders in both locations seeking a peaceful end to the conflict.

The NTC estimates that about 400 people have been killed and thousands injured in the battle for Tripoli since Sunday.

Earlier, Col Gaddafi said in an audio message that his decision to leave his Bab al-Aziziya compound was a "tactical" move.

He said he had "been out a bit in Tripoli discreetly, without being seen".

Libyan Foreign Minister Abdul Ati al-Obeidi told the UK's Channel 4 News that it appeared Col Gaddafi had exhausted all his options, including fleeing abroad, and that his rule "was over".

And the deputy head of Libyan intelligence, Gen Khalifa Mohammed Ali, declared his allegiance to the rebels in an interview with Saudi-owned al-Arabiya TV channel.

Meanwhile, the head of the NTC's cabinet, Mahmoud Jibril, said it was seeking $2.5bn in immediate aid.

Its immediate priority is to pay employees' salaries and cover humanitarian costs, though in the longer term, money will be needed to repair Libya's oil infrastructure, correspondents say.

Diplomats say the US will present a draft resolution at a meeting of the UN Security Council on Wednesday evening asking it to release $1.5bn of assets for humanitarian needs. A vote is expected on Thursday or Friday.

But South Africa has been stalling Washington's attempts, saying it wants to wait for guidance from the African Union, which has not recognised the rebel leadership as Libya's legitimate authority.

Meanwhile, the NTC says it has started the process of moving its headquarters from Benghazi to Tripoli, but that with Gaddafi loyalists still fighting back, a full move has been postponed until next week at the earliest.

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French ex-PM appeal hearing opens

2 May 2011 Last updated at 01:49 GMT Dominique de Villepin was cleared on four counts in the original trial Former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin is due to face an appeal trial over charges that he plotted to discredit President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Mr de Villepin was cleared in the case, but the state prosecutor appealed.

He had been accused of failing to stop the Clearstream corruption inquiry into Mr Sarkozy in 2004.

The BBC's Hugh Schofield reports from Paris that the outcome of the case could have a major impact on next year's presidential election.

In 2004, when both men were preparing for presidential bids, Mr Sarkozy's name appeared on a list of top politicians and businessmen who were wrongly linked to an illegal bank account in Luxembourg.

It was alleged those named on the list had received bribes from international arms sales.

The list was sent to people including Mr de Villepin, who was accused of failing to stop the conspiracy.

'Technical trial'

Last year a judge cleared Mr de Villepin on all four counts of complicity to slander, to use forgeries, dealing in stolen property and breach of trust.

Several other defendants in the case were found guilty on various charges.

Our correspondent says that today the rivalry between Mr de Villepin and Mr Sarkozy has a new significance because of a presidential election now less than a year away.

Mr de Villepin has created his own political movement and is widely expected to announce a presidential bid.

With polls suggesting he could get 5% of the first-round vote, he could do real damage to Mr Sarkozy.

Our correspondent adds that complicating the picture are signs that the two men may have had something of a reconciliation in recent weeks - though how sincere that can be, given the mutual loathing that has so long existed between the two, must be a mater of doubt.

"We're going to move from a trial that was almost dramatic art to a more technical trial," Olivier Metzner, one of Mr de Villepin's lawyers, said ahead of the appeal case.

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Wikileaks founder appeal date set

6 April 2011 Last updated at 13:19 GMT Julian Assange denies allegations of sexual assault in Sweden Wikileaks founder Julian Assange's appeal against extradition from the UK to Sweden on sexual assault allegations is to begin on 12 July.

A two-day hearing has been listed at the High Court.

After February's ruling at Belmarsh Magistrates' Court, Mr Assange said the extradition was due to a "European Arrest Warrant system run amok".

Lawyers for the 39-year-old, who denies the charges, argued the case breached his human rights.

He has been granted bail and is living at the home of journalist Vaughan Smith at Ellingham Hall, a 10-bedroom property set on 600 acres of land near Bungay on the Norfolk-Suffolk border.

'Adverse publicity'

Mr Assange has suggested the case was politically motivated because of Wikileaks' publication of sensitive material - including leaked US diplomatic cables - from governments and high-profile organisations that has made headlines worldwide.

He said he feared he could be handed over to the US authorities.

But in the ruling ordering the extradition, District Judge Howard Riddle said no evidence was provided to support that claim.

The judge also said he did not accept defence claims that that Mr Assange would not get a fair trial in Sweden or that the allegations against Mr Assange were not extraditable offences.

He did, however, find that there had been "considerable adverse publicity in Sweden for Mr Assange, in the popular press, the television and in parliament".

Mr Assange's legal team has indicated this issue would be central to their appeal against the decision.

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French kidnap woman appeal fails

11 February 2011 Last updated at 00:36 GMT Many people in France believe Florence Cassez is innocent A Mexican appeals court has upheld the conviction of a French woman, Florence Cassez, whose imprisonment for kidnapping has caused friction between the two countries.

The court said prosecutors had proved Ms Cassez guilt in three kidnappings in 2005 and her 60-year sentence would stand.

She has always pleaded her innocence.

France has warned that the decision to keep her behind bars will weigh on bilateral relations.

"I am appalled by the court's decision to back the judge's ruling on Florence Cassez," French Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said in a statement.

"It is a denial of justice."

She added that France would do everything it could to seek her release.

The case of Florence Cassez, 36, has long been controversial in both Mexico and France.

She was arrested in 2005 at a ranch near Mexico City where three kidnapping victims had been held for two months.

One of the victims was only eight years old.

Kidnapper's girlfriend

It later emerged the arrest, as seen by the public, was in fact a re-enactment staged by the police for the media.

Ms Cassez has always said her only connection with the case was that she was the girlfriend of the leading kidnapper.

But her victims identified her, and said she took an active role in their abductions.

In the appeal hearing her lawyers argued that her trial had been prejudiced from the start because she had been paraded in front of the media as guilty.

But the court rejected that argument, saying that the television footage was not formally considered during the trial.

Her lawyers also cast doubt on the testimony of the kidnap victims who identified her.

Mexico has one of the world's highest kidnap rates, with victims sometimes murdered even after ransoms have been paid, and Ms Cassez's case has attracted little public sympathy.

But many people in France believe she is innocent, and in 2009 President Nicolas Sarkozy pleaded for her to be allowed to serve her sentence in a French jail.

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