The UN to investigate Gaddafi's death as Human Rights issues are raised

Executed?

A television station based in Syria said on Friday that the slain Libyan leader's wife has asked for a United Nations investigation into his death.

Gaddafi's widow, Safia, left, has called for the UN to launch an inquiry into her husband's death.

Arrai television said in a news headline, referring to one of Gaddafi's sons as well that Gaddafi's wife was proud of her husband's courage and her children who, it said, stood up to 40 countries and their agents throughout six months and considered them to be martyrs.

Injured: Blood pours from a wound above Gaddafi's left temple as the rebels hurl insults at him. 'Shut up, dog', is how the stubborn tyrant responds

Final hiding place: The inside of a concrete tunnel into which Gaddafi and a small number of body guards crawled into once their convoy had been hit

The United Nations human rights office on Friday had already called for a full investigation into the death of Gaddafi and voiced concerns that he may have been executed.

Images filmed on mobile phones before and after Gaddafi's death showed him wounded and bloodied but clearly alive and pleading with his captors after his capture in his hometown of Sirte on Thursday, and then dead amidst a jostling crowd of anti-Gaddafi fighters.

"There's a lot of uncertainty about what happened exactly. There seem to be four or five different versions of how he died," UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told Reuters Television in an interview.

"If you take these two videos together, they are rather disturbing because you see someone who has been captured alive and then you see the same person dead.

"We are not in a position to say what has happened at this point but we feel that it is very important that this is clarified, that there is some sort of serious investigation into what happened and what caused his death," he said.

Asked whether the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay was concerned Gaddafi may have been executed while in captivity, Colville replied: "It has to be one possibility when you look at these two videos. So that's something that aninvestigation needs to look into."

Gaddafi's body lay in an old meat store on Friday as arguments swirled over his burial and the circumstances of his death.

With a bullet wound visible through the familiar curly hair, the corpse shown to Reuters in Misrata bore other marks of the violent end to a violent life that was being broadcast to the world in snatches of grainy, gory cellphone video.

Colville said it was is a fundamental principle of international law that people accused of serious crimes should be tried if possible. The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants in June for Gaddafi, his son Saif al-Islam and their intelligence chief for crimes against humanity.

"Summary executions are strictly illegal under any circumstances. It's different if someone is killed in combat. There was a civil war taking place in Libya. So if the person died as part of combat, that is a different issue and that is normally acceptable under the circumstances," he said.

"But if something else has happened, if someone is captured and then deliberately killed, then that is a very serious matter," he said.

Libya's interim Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril said Gaddafi was killed in a "crossfire" while being brought to hospital after his capture. A doctor who examined Gaddafi's body said he had been fatally wounded by a bullet in his intestines.

But a senior interim ruling National Transitional Council source told Reuters Gaddafi was killed by his captors: "While he was being taken away, they beat him and then they killed him," the source said. "He might have been resisting."

In one of the videos that emerged, Gaddafi is hauled by his hair from the hood of a truck. Someone shouts: "Keep him alive!"

Gaddafi disappears from view and shots ring out.

An international commission of inquiry, launched by the U.N. Human Rights Council, is already investigating killings, torture and other crimes in Libya.

Colville said he expected that the team, now headed by former ICC President Philippe Kirsch, would look into the circumstances of Gaddafi's death and make recommendations about the need for either a full national or international probe.

Gaddafi's daughter, Ayesha, above, called her father's mobile phone but it was answered by rebels 

Parties of the past: Gaddafi cuddles a young relative as wife Safia, centre, son Mutassim, and another female family member looks on

Paraded: Bystanders watch over Gaddafi's body as it lies in a storage freezer in Misrata

Around two hours later, Gaddafi's scarred dead body was paraded through the streets of Sirte to a hail of celebratory gunfire and cheers. How he came to die is unclear.

Was this the moment the dictator died? A handgun points at the head of Gaddafi who is facing the ground with his hands behind his back

Fear on his face after being captured in his home town of Sirte, this is Gaddafi in the moments leading up to his death

Final moments: A dazed Gaddafi gesticulates as rebels parade him through Sirte shortly before he was shot 

Grimacing in pain: A still from a video taken from the mobile phone of a rebel fighter shows Gaddafi, his face covered in blood, being dragged around by freedom fighters

Losing blood: Gaddafi lifts a hand to his face to see the blood pouring from his wounds. The mobile phone footage shows the dictator slumped against a jeep but still alive

Gaddafi's death raises many questions...   

1. What will happen to the missing billions he siphoned off and deposited around the world?

The fallen dictator is believed to have had around $168 billion in assets abroad, most of which has been frozen since the start of the year. His wife's assets worth £18billion have been frozen.

2. Whether he was killed in some form of fighting or was executed after his capture?

3. What was the extent of his friendship with some leaders around the world?

4. What part did he play in the Lokerbie bomb attack?

Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora died in the 1988 Lockerbie atrocity, said Gaddafi should have been kept alive and put on trial.

‘As far as justice being done is concerned the pictures seem to show that he was first captured and then potentially lynched or shot once in captivity.

‘If that is the case, as opposed to what the committee are putting out publicly, then it was no form of justice and I think it would have been much better if he could have been kept alive so that he could have been perhaps extradited to the Criminal Court of Justice in the Hague in order to have a fair trial and to answer the questions that he could.'

5. How powerful is the ability of the new Libyan leadership to control the men with guns?

6. What part did Western allies play in the shooting and there are huge questions about the about respect for justice and human rights among those who claimed to be fighting for just those ideals.

The controversy has delayed the burial which under Islamic custom is meant to take place within 24 hours of death.

A senior military commander for the National Transitional Council said members of Gaddafi’s tribe were talking to the fighters to discuss the possibility of taking on the task of burying him - a procedure that would follow a tradition also recognised when Saddam Hussein was hanged in Iraq.

Some news culled from the Mail and The Jerusalem Post