Muammar Gadafy's former intelligence chief has surrendered after being surrounded by troops loyal to Libya's interim government, reports say.
Free Libya TV had reported Abdullah al-Senussi was arrested in southern Libya. "The battalion of Je'fel Fazzan captured Abdullah al-Senussi in his sister's home . . . close to Sabha," the station's correspondent said.
However, a commander of forces loyal to Libya's interim government later said al-Senussi was surrounded and that negotiations were under way.
Earlier today, the Libyan National Transitional Council prime minister pledged a fair trial for Saif al-Islam Gadafy following his capture in the south of the country.
Libyan militiamen are holding the late Muammar Gadafy's son in their mountain stronghold today, a day after seizing him without a fight in the southern desert and a month after his father was killed.
Prime Minister Abdurrahim al-Keib pledged a fair trial after visiting the town of Zintan, where he is being held after being detained in the desert, adding he trusted the fighters to take care of their captive.
Western leaders have urged the incoming government of Mr Keib to seek foreign help to ensure a fair trial.
The prime minister drove from Tripoli to Zintan today and promised justice would be done but that Saif al-Islam would not be handed over to the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague, which had indicted him for crimes against humanity.
Mr Keib is expected to announce a cabinet line-up tomorrow, a source in the interim administration said.
The justice minister from the outgoing executive said Saif al-Islam was likely to face the death penalty, though the charge sheet, expected to include ordering killings as well as looting the public purse, would be drawn up by the state prosecutor after due investigation.
Saif al-Islam's fate will be a test for Mr Keib's incoming government as it sets out to stamp its authority on a country now dominated by armed militias with largely local loyalties.
Western leaders have urged Libya to work with the ICC, which has also issued an arrest warrant for Saif al-Islam, on charges of crimes against humanity during the crackdown on protesters.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch both called on Libya to hand him over to the ICC and guarantee his safety.
But Libya's interim justice minister Mohammed al-Alagy told Reuters Saif al-Islam would be tried inside Libya for serious crimes that carry the death penalty.
"The final act of the Libyan drama", as a spokesman for the former rebels put it, began in the blackness of the Sahara night, when a small unit of fighters from the town of Zintan, acting on a tip-off, intercepted Saif and four armed companions driving in a pair of 4x4 vehicles on a desert track.
His captors said he was "very scared" when they first recognised him, despite the heavy beard and enveloping Tuareg robes and turban he wore. But they reassured him and, by the time a Reuters correspondent spoke to him aboard the plane, he had been chatting amiably to his guards.
"He looked tired. He had been lost in the desert for many days," said Abdul al-Salaam al-Wahissi, a Zintan fighter involved in the operation. "I think he lost his guide," he said.
Despite a tense couple of hours on the runway on Saturday, when excited crowds rushed the plane that flew him from Obari to Zintan, an anti-Gadafy bastion, the fighters holding him said they were determined he would not meet the fate of his father, who was killed after being seized.
Word of the capture set off rejoicing in the streets of cities across the country. Streets echoed with gunfire, from rifles but also the anti-aircraft cannon mounted on civilian pick-up trucks that became the abiding image of an eight-month civil war that ended with the ousted leader's death in his home town of Sirte.
Reuters