MISRATA, Oct 25 – The body of Libyan ex-leader Muammar Gaddafi was buried overnight in a secret location after days of being put on display in a market freezer, a Misrata military council member said Tuesday.
The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Gaddafi’s remains were buried “overnight in a religious ceremony” along with the corpses of his son Mutassim and ex-defence minister Abu Bakr Yunis Jaber.
According to guards at the entrance to the market on the outskirts of Misrata, a convoy of four or five military vehicles took away the bodies late Monday night to an unknown location.
Three religious leaders loyal to the ousted dictator prayed and performed a religious ceremony before the burial, the military council member said.
The father and two sons of the former defence minister were present when the bodies were picked up at the market, the source said.
The burials come amid raging controversy over the circumstances of Gaddafi’s death after he was taken alive during the fall of his hometown Sirte last Thursday.
Libya’s interim leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil said on Monday that a commission of inquiry is to probe the strongman’s killing after foreign governments and rights group raised questions.
“In response to international calls, we have started to put in place a commission tasked with investigating the circumstances of Muammar Gaddafi’s death in the clash with his circle as he was being captured,” Abdel Jalil said.
The UN human rights office welcomed this announcement.
Disquiet has grown internationally over how Gaddafi met his end after NTC fighters hauled him out of a culvert where he was hiding following NATO air strikes on the convoy in which he had been trying to flee his falling hometown.
Mobile phone videos show him still alive at that point.
The corpses of Gaddafi – with a bullet wound to the head – his son Mutassim, and decades-long confidant Abubakr Yunes had laid in a meat market freezer on the outskirts of the city of Misrata until Monday.
Libya’s interim prime minister Mahmud Jibril said in Jordan on Sunday that an autopsy report showed Gaddafi was killed in “crossfire from both sides.”
Since Friday, thousands of ordinary Libyans have viewed the bodies of the slain men, many taking pictures on their mobile phone.
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