TRIPOLI, Libya — Libya’s transitional leader has declared liberation of the country, three days after the death of its leader of four decades, Moammar Gadhafi. Mustafa Abdul-Jalil also told thousands of supporters at a ceremony on Sunday that Islamic Sharia law would be the “basic source” of legislation in the country and that existing laws that contradict the teachings of Islam would be nullified.
In an address that set an Islamist tone for post-Gadhafi Libya, he said new banks would be set up to follow the Islamic banking system, which bans charging interest.
Gadhafi’s death in circumstances that are still unclear, and the gruesome spectacle of his body laid out as a trophy in a commercial freezer and on public view, are testing the new Libyan leaders’ commitment to the rule of law. Even at the ceremony to declare liberation, two speakers in positions of authority essentially said Gadhafi got what he deserved.
But Abdul-Jalil, who made the keynote speech, did not mention the events surrounding Gadhafi’s end and called on his people to eschew hatred.
“You should only embrace honesty, patience and mercy,” Abdul-Jalil told the crowd at the declaration ceremony in the eastern city of Benghazi, the birthplace of the uprising against Gadhafi. He urged Libyans to reconcile their differences.
And he laid out a vision for the post-Gadhafi future with an Islamist tint. In a gesture that showed his own piety, he urged Libyans not to express their joy by firing guns in the air, but rather to chant “Allahu Akbar,” or “God is great.” He then stepped aside from the lectern and knelt to offer a brief prayer of thanks.
Abdul-Jalil outlined several changes to align with Islamic law.
“This revolution was looked after by God to achieve victory,” he said.
Abdul-Jalil said new banks would follow the Islamic banking system, which bans charging interest as a practice deemed usury. For the time being, he said, interest would be canceled from any personal loans already taken out at less than $7,500.
He also announced the annulment of an existing family law that limits the number of wives Libyan men can take, contradicting the provision in the Muslim holy book, the Koran, that allows men up to four wives.
And he urged Libyans to hand back money or property taken during the civil war.
Abdul-Jalil thanked those who fought and fell in the fight against Gadhafi’s forces.
“They are somewhere better than here, with God,” he said.
Using Sharia as the main source of legislation is stipulated in the constitution of neighboring Egypt. Still, Egyptian laws remain largely secular, as Sharia does not cover all aspects of modern life.
The uprising against Gadhafi broke out in February as part of anti-government revolts spreading across the Middle East.
Libya’s struggle has been the bloodiest so far in the region. Mass protests quickly turned into a civil war that killed thousands and paralyzed the country for the past eight months. Gadhafi’s hometown of Sirte was the last loyalist stronghold to fall last week, but Gadhafi’s son and one-time heir apparent, Seif al-Islam, apparently escaped with some of his supporters.
Al-Islam, whose location isn’t known, vowed to continue fighting and told the revolutionaries to “go to hell” in a one-minute audio message aired over the weekend by a Syrian-based television station, Al Arabiya reported.
Abdul-Jalil paid tribute to the Gulf Cooperation Council, a six-nation alliance led by Saudi Arabia, the Arab League and the European Union. NATO, which aided the anti-Gadhafi fighters with airstrikes, performed its task with “efficiency and professionalism,” he added.
President Barack Obama congratulated Libyans on the declaration.
“After four decades of brutal dictatorship and eight months of deadly conflict, the Libyan people can now celebrate their freedom and the beginning of a new era of promise,” he said.
Obama said the U.S. looks forward to working with officials as they prepare for free and fair elections.
But just hours before that statement, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Britain’s new defense secretary, Philip Hammond, said a full investigation into Gadhafi’s death is necessary.
“It’s important that this new government — this effort to have a democratic Libya — start with the rule of law, start with accountability,” Clinton said Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press. “Everyone who stood with the old regime, as long as they don’t have blood on their hands, should be safe and included in a new Libya.”
An autopsy confirmed that Gadhafi died from a gunshot to the head, Libya’s chief pathologist, Dr. Othman al-Zintani, said. However, the pathologist said he would not disclose further details or elaborate on Gadhafi’s final moments, saying he would first deliver a full report to the attorney general.
The 69-year-old Gadhafi was captured wounded but alive Thursday in his hometown of Sirte. Bloody images of Gadhafi being taunted and beaten by his captors have raised questions about whether he was deliberately executed.
The vast majority of Libyans seemed unconcerned about the circumstances of the hated leader’s death, but rather were relieved the country’s ruler of 42 years was gone, clearing the way for a new beginning.
“If he [Gadhafi] was taken to court, this would create more chaos, and would encourage his supporters,” said Salah Zlitni, 31, who owns a pizza parlor in downtown Tripoli. “Now it’s over.”
The long-awaited declaration of liberation starts the clock on Libya’s transition to democracy. The transitional leadership has said it would declare a new interim government within a month of liberation and elections for a constitutional assembly within eight months, to be followed by votes for a parliament and president within a year.
Meanwhile, nearly 7,000 prisoners of war are packed into dingy, makeshift jails around Libya by revolutionary forces, where they have languished for weeks without charge and have faced abuse and even torture, according to human-rights groups and interviews with the detainees.
Many of Libya’s makeshift prisons are run by local militia groups scarred by the eight-month war and angry at the prisoners, who include Gadhafi fighters and supporters.
“Some of these [pro-Gadhafi] people raped, some killed. There was vandalism. They tortured us; they killed kids,” said Abdel Gader Abu Shaallah, who oversees two other makeshift prisons in Misrata. “We are emotionally destroyed.”
Mona Rishmawi, a senior United Nations human-rights official, said after visiting Libya this month that up to 7,000 prisoners were being held with no judicial process.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have documented numerous cases of ill treatment of detainees. Dark-skinned Libyans and sub-Saharan Africans, the human-rights groups say, have been especially vulnerable to beatings and torture by electric shock. Many Libyans suspect those with darker skin of being African mercenaries or of otherwise supporting Gadhafi.
Information for this article was contributed by from Tripoli, Libya, by Kim Gamel and Karin Laub, from Southern Shuneh, Jordan, by Jamal Halaby, and from London by Raphael G. Satter of The Associated Press; and from Washington by Joshua Gallu, from Cairo by Miriam Fam, from Benghazi, Libya, by Ola Galal and from Dubai, United Arab Emirates by Maher Chmaytelli of Bloomberg News; and from Misrata, Libya by Mary Beth Sheridan of The Washington Post.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 10/24/2011