Libyan nomad gave up Gaddafi’s son despite €1m offer

SAIF al-Islam Gaddafi was betrayed by a Libyan nomad, who says he was hired to help Muammar Gaddafi’s son escape to neighbouring Niger on the promise that he would be paid €1 million.

Saif al-Islam, wanted for prosecution by the International Criminal Court, was captured at the weekend in what one official in the country’s new government said was “the final chapter in Libya’s drama”.

With a black scarf wrapped around his head, Yussef Saleh al-Hotmani said that he contacted revolutionary fighters in Libya’s south to inform them when Saif’s two-car convoy would be passing through the area on the night of November 18.

“I made Saif believe,” he said in Zintan, where Saif al-Islam is being held at a secret location. He is likely to be tried in Libya, but with judges from the International Criminal Court involved in the case.

On the night of Saif al-Islam’s capture, Hotmani said he was travelling with the younger Gaddafi’s personal guard in the first car of their convoy.

“I had agreed with the fighters (who captured Saif al-Islam) that the best place for the ambush would be in a part of desert that was surrounded by high ground,” he said.

Ten fighters from Zintan, in the Western mountains, and five from Hotmani’s own tribe, al-Hotman, were waiting.

“When we arrived at the dark, deep hollow the gunfire was very precise. It only took about half a minute to capture the first car,” he said, adding that he intentionally told Saif al-Islam’s convoy to have the vehicles spaced 3km apart to give the fighters time to regroup and for Hotmani to join them.

“When the second car arrived, we started to shoot very precisely, to damage the vehicle so he could not escape.”

It is unclear if Hotmani had planned to ensnare Saif al-Islam from the moment he linked up with the fugitive’s group in the Sahara desert, or if he defected when he had doubts about his payment and feared he might be killed.

The Saharan nomad, who calls himself the “son of the desert”, refused to give details on when or how he contacted the 15 fighters of the interim government who caught Saif al-Islam.

There was less than $5,000 found in the two-car convoy and Hotmani said he was not paid a penny of the €1 million promised to him.