Abdullah al-Senussi Libya's deputy prime minister Mostafa Abu Shaqur said the Libyan delegation that visited Mauritania on Tuesday was allowed to visit Abdullah al-Senussi, the intelligence chief of slain leader Muammar Gaddafi's regime.
Al-Senussi, who is Gaddafi's brother-in-law and is regarded as being reponsible for the former regime's brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters last year was detained in Nouakchott airport. He was allegedly found with multiple passports, including a Malian one.
Abu Shaqur revealed through his Twitter account that al-Senussi was kept in a "secure prison" in Mauritania and will be soon be handed over to Libya. He explained the lack of al-Senussi's photos after his arrested, by saying "the international regulations prevents the publishing of photos of detained persons, in addition to the Mauritanian authorities prohibiting it."
However a source told AFP that Mauritania "didn't offer any guarantees for Libya that al-Senussi would be handed over to them",  contradicting Libyan government spokesperson Nasser al-Mane who insisted on Wednesday that Nouakchott has accepted to hand over the fugitive to Tripoli.
An official statement issued by the Mauritanian government on Saturday, said that al-Senussi was arrested in Nouakchott airport where he arrived coming from the Moroccan city Casablanca, which was later denied by Morocco. Al-Senussi is wanted for judgement in Libya, France, and the International Criminal Court (ICC) for a range of crimes.
French president Nicholas Sarkozy saod al-Senussi had been sentenced in absentia for the 1989 bombing of a UTA airliner, in which a total 170 people were killed. Families of the victims immediately demanded he face justice in France.
The ICC has charged al-Senussi and Gaddafi's son Seif al-Islam as being "indirect co-perpetrators" of murder and persecution.
Libya said he would receive a fair trial there, while the ICC also declared its desire for him to be transferred to The Hague war crimes court.
International human rights groups doubt al-Senussi will have a fair trial in Libya and have said it would be preferable for him to go to the ICC, which has indicted him on two counts of crimes against humanity during last year's uprising.
Al-Senussi's name has also been linked to the 1988 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland of a Pan Am jet that killed 270 people. He is also widely thought to know details of Gaddafi's cooperation with Western states.