Apology could free Libyan-held ICC team

An International Criminal Court team held in Libya could be freed if the ICC apologises to the Libyan authorities over "inadequate consultation", Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr said Tuesday. Carr travelled to Libya on Monday to meet with top officials over the case of Australian Melinda Taylor, one of the ICC staff detained in Zintan on June 7 after meeting the son of slain dictator Moamer Kadhafi, Seif al-Islam. The ICC wants to try Seif, 39, for crimes against humanity during his father's rule. Tripoli insists he should be tried locally and filed on May 1 a motion challenging the ICC's jurisdiction to put him on trial in The Hague. In a statement Carr said the issue could be resolved by the ICC "issuing a statement which addresses the concerns of Libyan authorities and extends an apology for inadequate consultation on protocol and procedures". "I'm confident that the Libyan government and even the authorities in Zintan are keen that the four detainees be released," Carr added to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. "And I'm quietly confident that with an appropriate form of words from the International Criminal Court, that they will respond sooner rather than later." Carr said Libyan judicial officials investigating the actions of the four detained staff -- Taylor and colleagues from Lebanon, Russia and Spain, who had been helping Seif choose a defence lawyer, were close to a conclusion. But he said there were "extreme sensitivities" in the case, in which Taylor has been accused of carrying a pen camera and attempting to give Seif a coded letter from his former right-hand man, Mohammed Ismail, who is on the run. Carr said Australia was happy to be a broker in resolving the situation with Libyan officials, who believed the ICC team had not followed correct processes in interviewing Seif. "We're prepared to be the brokers between the International Criminal Court and the Libyans," Carr said after meeting interim Prime Minister Abdel Rahim al-Kib and other senior government officials. "They recognise they've got to have a dialogue when this affair is settled, and I think Australia could play a role as good global citizen in facilitating it, and both of them are open to that suggestion." International pressure has been growing on Libya to release the ICC team, with the United Nations Security Council issuing a statement expressing "serious concern" over their detention.