Libya Expected to Release ICC Staff Monday 02/07/2012 13:40:00
The International Criminal Court, ICC, has said it expects four members of staff detained in the Libyan mountain town of Zintan to be released on Monday, coinciding with a visit to Libya by the court's president, Sang-hyun Song, ICC spokesman Fadi El Abdallah said.
The four-strong legal team has been held in Libya since June 7 June after visiting Seif al-Islam, the son of former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi in Zintan. Australian lawyer Melida Taylor was accused of spying.
Ms Taylor and three of her colleagues were arrested soon after the meeting and accused of spying after she was found to be trying to hand Seif a coded letter from his former right-hand man, Mohammed Ismail, who is on the run, and for carrying a pen camera.
Ms Taylor was appointed by the ICC to help prepare the defence of Saif al-Islam, who was captured by the Zintan militia last November.
Announcing the ICC president's visit to Libya Monday, Fadi El Abdallah said the release of the four ICC staff was expected at the end of the visit.
Those being held with Ms Taylor, are, her Lebanese translator Helene Assaf - accused of being her accomplice - Russian Alexander Khodakov and Spaniard Esteban Peralta Losilla.
Earlier on Sunday, an official from the Libyan prosecutor-general's office told Reuters that the ICC delegation would "offer an apology for the acts their team committed".
Meanwhile, Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr told media the ICC would only "breathe easy" once Ms Taylor was "winging her way" back to The Hague.
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