TRIPOLI, July 6 (Xinhua) -- The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued a second arrest for Mahmoud al-Werfalli, the commander of an elite unit of the Libyan National Army, for war crimes.
"On 4 July 2018, Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court ("ICC" or the "Court") issued a second warrant of arrest for Mahmoud Mustafa Busayf AL-WERFALLI ("Mr. Al-Werfalli") for his alleged responsibility for murder as a war crime in the context of the non-international armed conflict in Libya." ICC said in a statement on Thursday.
"The Chamber found that there were reasonable grounds to believe that Mr. Al-Werfalli directly committed murder as a war crime in the context of an eighth incident which took place on 24 January 2018, when Mr. Al-Werfalli allegedly shot dead 10 persons in front of the Bi'at al-Radwan Mosque in Benghazi, Libya," the statement said.
"The Chamber found the case against Mr. Al-Werfalli to be admissible before the Court, due to the lack of investigative activities in Libya." the statement added.
Al-Werfalli is a general in the special forces attached to the Libyan eastern-based army, led by General Khalifa Haftar, that controls Libya's northeastern city of Benghazi.
In August 2017, the ICC, which is based in The Hague, issued an arrest warrant for al-Werfalli and demanded his extradition over suspicion of committing war crimes in eastern Libya.
Immediately after the warrant was issued, the army announced that al-Werfalli was under arrest and being investigated, although his whereabouts were unknown.
In February, al-Werfalli announced that he would surrender himself to the army's military police.
