Abdullah al-Senussi, Gadaffi's spy-chief

Has been captured in Mauritania, Libya have requested he be handed over.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-17414121

Former Libyan intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi was one of the closest confidants of Libya's former leader Col Muammar Gaddafi.

A prominent figure in Libya, Brig Gen Senussi married Gaddafi's wife's sister and held various roles during the former leader's tenure, including deputy chief of the external security organisation.

He is also said to be a close adviser to Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam, according to leaked US embassy documents.

In June 2011 the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Gen Senussi, along with Muammar and Saif Gaddafi, for crimes against humanity committed at the start of the Libyan uprising in February 2011.

However, he is seen by observers as the executor of rather than the mastermind behind the activities of the Gaddafi regime.

Lockerbie knowledge

Gen Senussi has been accused of other human rights abuses, including his implication in the massacre in 1996 of more than 1,000 inmates at the Abu Salim prison in Tripoli.

He is alleged to have given the order to guards standing on grated ceilings above the inmates to fire down on them, after riots broke out over demands for better food and sanitary conditions.

He has been unable to travel abroad freely since he was convicted in absentia in 1999 by France for his role in the bombing of a French UTA passenger plane in 1989.

The plane blew up over the West African country of Niger, killing 170 people.

Analysts also believe Gen Senussi has knowledge that could help the US and UK authorities establish the full facts about the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, in which 270 people died.

Recent investigations have cast doubt on the conviction of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, the only man brought to justice over the bombing. Gen Senussi is believed to have recruited Megrahi.

Business interests

The former intelligence chief is also thought to have information about Libyans kidnapped and assassinated in Europe and elsewhere during Gaddafi's rule, and the financing of terrorist organisations, especially in Africa.

He has also been linked to a plot to assassinate Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah in 2003.

And he is said to have overseen the building of a secret nuclear plant in Libya's southern desert, the whereabouts of which has never been revealed.

He was already on a US treasury department blacklist of senior Libyan officials whose assets can be frozen if they are found inside US jurisdiction.

He is also said to have extensive business interests, like other members of Libya's political elite.

Since the Libyan revolt broke out, Gen Senussi has been accused of ordering the killing of protesters and recruiting foreign mercenaries fighting for Gaddafi.