Gadhafi family members in Algeria, ambassador says By the CNN Wire Staff August 29, 2011 -- Updated 2015 GMT (0415 HKT)
(CNN) -- The wife of fugitive Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi, three of his children and some of his grandchildren arrived in Algeria on Monday morning, Algerian diplomats said
Mourad Benmehidi, the Algerian ambassador to the United Nations, said he relayed the news to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon earlier Monday. Benmehidi said his country granted entrance to Gadhafi's wife, Safia, his daughter, Aisha, sons Hannibal and Mohamed and their children on "humanitarian grounds."
The ambassador said none of the Gadhafis were on a list of people under Security Council sanctions and did not know whether Moammar Gadhafi was expected to seek entry into Algeria.
News on Monday of the Gadhafi relatives' departure from Libya came the same day that a senior rebel commander reported that Khamis Gadhafi, a son of the Libyan leader and military commander in his regime, had been killed Sunday night.
Mahdi al-Harati, the vice chairman of the rebels' Military Council, the military wing of the National Transitional Council, said Khamis Gadhafi died in a battle with rebel forces between the villages of Tarunah and Bani Walid in northwest Libya.
Khamis Gadhafi, who was a senior military commander under his father, was taken to a hospital where he died from his injuries, said al-Harati. He was then buried in the area by rebel forces, al-Harati said.
His father, Moammar Gadhafi, meanwhile, is still wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague on charges of war crimes. So, too, is Moammar's son Saif al-Islam Gadhafi and his brother-in-law and intelligence chief, Abdullah al-Sanussi.
But should any of those three get to Algeria, there is no guarantee they would face trial. Algeria is not a signatory of the Rome Treaty that established the International Criminal Court.
The longtime ruler's whereabouts have been a mystery since the rebels overran Tripoli last week. Rebel commanders said Gadhafi was not found in the network of tunnels beneath his Bab al-Aziziya compound, and reports that he had been holed up in an apartment block nearby or at a farm near Tripoli's airport didn't pan out.
The National Transitional Council, which is forming a provisional government in Tripoli since overrunning the city last week, has not yet confirmed the news about Gadhafi's family members, spokesman Mahmoud al-Shammam told CNN. But he said that if true, the NTC would demand the return of the family members. He promised they would receive a fair trial.
The rebels had previously speculated that Gadhafi could be trying to reach Algeria or Libya's southern neighbor Chad, both countries with which his government had close ties.
"Those are the only two neighboring countries that have been showing support for him," Guma El-Gamaty, an NTC official based in Britain, said last week.
In London, Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office said the fate of Gadhafi's relatives "is a matter for the NTC." In Washington, White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters the United States has no indication Gadhafi has left Libya.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland added that what's important is that Gadhafi and his relatives, wherever they are, are held accountable.
"We want to see justice and accountability for Gadhafi and those members of his family with blood on their hands and those members of his regime with blood on their hands," Nuland said. "But it'll be a decision of the Libyan people, (as to) how that goes forward."
Of the family members now in Algeria, Aisha Gadhafi was a good will ambassador for the U.N. Development Program and has kept a low profile during the six-month revolt against her father. She had been named to the position in 2009 to address HIV/AIDS and violence against women in Libya, but U.N. officials terminated her position as Gadhafi unleashed his military on anti-government protesters early in the conflict.
She is due to give birth in early September, sources close to her family told CNN.
Hannibal Gadhafi is a headline maker. He has reportedly paid millions of dollars for private parties featuring big-name entertainers including Beyonce, Mariah Carey and Usher. Several of the artists now say they have given the money back.
Rebels who picked through his seaside villa on Sunday also introduced CNN's Dan Rivers to his family's badly burned former nanny, who said she had been doused with boiling water by his wife, model Aline Skaf, when she refused to beat one of their crying toddlers.
The nanny, Shweyga Mullah, is covered with scars from the abuse, which was corroborated by another member of the household staff.
Hannibal was also accused of a string of violent incidents in Europe, including beating his staff and his wife. Charges were dropped in the case of his staff, and Skaf later said her broken nose was the result of an accident.
In a spectacular episode, Hannibal was stopped after driving his Ferrari 90 mph the wrong way on the Champs-Elysees in Paris. He invoked diplomatic immunity.
Mohamed Gadhafi, meanwhile, was one of three Gadhafi sons who had been reported captured as the rebels overran Tripoli last week, but the rebels said he had escaped the next day.
CNN's Richard Roth and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.
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