TRIPOLI, (Reuters) – The daughter of Muammar Gaddafi’s former spy chief was arrested at a Tripoli hotel for entering Libya illegally, a Supreme Security Committee official said on Sunday.
The official, who declined to be named, said Al-Unood al-Senussi, daughter of Abdullah al-Senussi and niece of Gaddafi’s wife Safiah, was detained by the military police on Saturday.
“Al-Unood was arrested at a central Tripoli hotel after she entered Libya from Algeria on a fake Libyan passport,” he told Reuters. He said the daugher, 18, was carrying a “large amount” of U.S. dollars, but he did not say how much.
While her father faces charges of “crimes against Libyans” in Tripoli and is also wanted by the International Criminal Court in the Hague and by France, Al-Unood al-Senussi has not been accused of any crime, except illegally entering Libya, the official said.
Abdullah al-Senussi was arrested seven months ago after arriving with a falsified Malian passport on a flight to the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, from Morocco.
He was then handed to Libya by Mauritanian authorities last month, triggering a tussle between Libya, France and the ICC over who should try him.
The ICC has issued a warrant for Senussi accusing him of crimes against humanity, including murder. France wants to try Senussi in connection with a 1989 airliner bombing over Niger in which 54 of its nationals died.
Senussi has also been linked to the 1988 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland of U.S. passenger plane that killed 270 people. Diplomatic sources have said the United States was keen to question him about that.