Slain leader Moamer Kadhafi's son Seif al-Islam will go on trial next month in the Libyan town of Zintan, a prosecution official said Thursday, despite an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant.
"A committee from the prosecutor general's office has completed its investigation into the crimes committed by Seif al-Islam from the start of the revolution on February 15 (2011) and has prepared the chargesheet," prosecutor general spokesman Taha Nasser Baara said.
He said the chargesheet would be "approved by the prosecutor general in the coming days and a date set for the September trial opening" in Zintan, a hilltop town 170 kilometres (130 miles) southwest of the Libyan capital.
The official dismissed press reports that the decision was the outcome of negotiations between the prosecutor general's office and a militia comprising former rebels which arrested Seif and has demanded he be tried in Zintan.
"Zintan is a Libyan city and the law allows us to try Seif in the majority of Libyan cities, in that these crimes concern the whole country," Baraa said.
Baraa added that "cities far from the capital are more secure."
The ICC in The Hague had issued a warrant for Seif's arrest on charges of crimes against humanity during the conflict which overthrew his father last year.