Niger Won't Extradite Gadhafi Son Despite 'Subversive' Talk

Niger will not extradite Saadi Gadhafi even though the son of the slain Libyan leader violated his asylum conditions with "subversive" comments in a television interview, officials said Saturday.

"Our position remains the same -- we will hand Saadi Gadhafi to a government that has an independent and impartial justice system," government spokesman Marou Amadou told reporters in Niamey.

Libya's ruling National Transitional Council responded with a renewed call to the Niger authorities to extradite Saadi Gadhafi, saying that relations between the two neighbors were at risk.

Amadou said that Gadhafi's comments were "subversive and unfortunate" and that all former close aides to the slain ruler who had taken refuge in Niger "must abstain from all agitation, all subversive behavior."

"We would like to say to the NTC that Niger's government in no way approved or prompted this business, and we also are badly disappointed," Amadou said.

"It is with great bitterness that I say that Saadi Gadhafi, in predicting an imminent uprising in Libya, has contravened the terms and conditions under which we took him in."

But "our position is simple, we cannot deliver someone to a place where he risks being put to death and where he is not likely to have a dignified trial," he said.

Amadou said that the surveillance of Gadhafi had been seriously strengthened and the government was considering sanctions against those who were guarding him.

He added that Niger had authorized the International Criminal Court to take over Gadhafi's case but it had not responded.

Saadi, 38, took refuge in Libya's southern neighbor last August. Niamey has refused to extradite him despite repeated requests from the new Libyan authorities.

They accuse him of having "taken goods by force and intimidation when he led the Libyan football federation," according to international police organization Interpol, which issued a "red notice" for his arrest.

Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou said on November 11 his country had granted political asylum to Saadi Gadhafi on "humanitarian grounds."