The secrets of Saif Gaddafi’s jail: chef, satellite TV and a basketball court

[tabatha]

The new exercise yard in Saif Gaddafi's prison within a prison in Tripoli. Photograph: Irina Kalashnikova for the Observer

Behind a grey forbidding wall on the outskirts of the Libyan capital sits a secret prison constructed to hold just one prisoner – Saif al-Islam Gaddafi. The heir apparent to Libya’s late dictator Muammar Gaddafi will be moved here from custody in the mountain town of Zintan in the coming weeks to face a controversial war crimes trial that will pitch Libya against the International Criminal Court.

Libya’s ruling National Transitional Council is taking no chances: to house this one man, they have emptied Tripoli’s biggest jail, Al Ahdath, and built a prison-within-a-prison to accommodate him. The Observer was last week granted exclusive access to the jail, which sits amid warehouses and sprawling countryside in the suburb of Tajura.

Entry is through an imposing gate guarded by militia jeeps sporting anti-aircraft machine guns. A quarter-mile drive up a tree-lined avenue ends at the buildings that previously held more than a thousand women and juveniles. Beyond that, hidden behind a 50ft grey wall, is Saif’s compound, a place so secret it does not yet have a name.

Home will be a specially built blockhouse which sits on one side of a courtyard. Inside, there are two exercise yards, each covered with sturdy steel mesh designed to combat the chance of a helicopter rescue attempt.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/18/said-gaddafi-libya-international-criminal-court