Tunisia's Decision to Extradite Libya ex-PM 'Irrevocable'

Tunisia's decision to extradite Libya's former prime minister Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi back to his home country is definitive, Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali told Agence France Presse on Friday.

"The decision to hand over Mr. Mahmoudi is irrevocable," he said, without providing a date for the extradition of the former premier, a stalwart of slain Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s fallen regime.

Lawyers for Mahmoudi, who was arrested in September, and rights groups have argued he will be executed if he returns to Libya, where a February 2011 uprising ended more than four decades of Gadhafi’s dictatorship.

Libyan authorities have guaranteed that former premier will get a fair trial, meeting Tunisia's final condition for his extradition, the Tunisian president's office said last month.

The presidency then said a committee of independent Tunisian political figures would be formed to oversee the extradition process and monitor promises to protect Mahmoudi's rights after his transfer to Libya.

The ex-premier is the subject of two extradition requests from Tripoli.

Tunisia's January 2011 revolution ousting strongman Zine el Abidine Ben Ali triggered the pro-democracy Arab Spring.