Mustafa Abdul Jalil met Sudan's President Omar Al-Bashir at Tripoli’s airport The head of Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC), Mustafa Abdul Jalil met Sudan's President Omar Al-Bashir at Tripoli’s airport, while the visit faced strong criticism from Human Rights Watch organization , which said that hosting such an "international fugitive" sent troubling signals about the commitment of Libya's new rulers to human rights, as the Sudanese president is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of genocide and war crimes in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region.
Bashir in his two-day visit, which marked the first visit after the killing of Libya’s former dictator Muammar Gaddafi, was accompanied by a high-level delegation including Sudan’s Foreign Minister Ali Karti, national security and intelligence director General Mohamed Atta and central bank governor Mohamed Khair Al-Zubair.
Bashir said in a press conference in Tripoli that after Libya, Gaddafi inflicted the most damage in Sudan. "We all suffered from the old regime, we were the second to have suffered the most, after the Libyan people," he said.
He pointed out that the visit felt "like it was the first time," adding that he came to stress Sudan's support for the Libyan people and the country's new government that took charge after Gaddafi's four-decade dictatorship fell.
Meanwhile, Richard Dicker, international justice director at Human Rights Watch, strongly criticized Al-Bashir’s visit to Libya.
"Omar Al-Bashir is an international fugitive from an arrest warrant for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes," he said.
"Many governments have refused him entry into their countries. His arrival in Tripoli sends a disturbing signal about NTC's commitment to human rights and the rule of law."
On November, the head of Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC), Mustafa Abdul Jalil visited Khartoum, making the first visit of Libyan senior official after Gaddafi’s regime, while Al-Bashir revealed on October that Sudan provided weapons to the Libyan rebels who overthrew Gaddafi, with whom Sudan had an uneasy relationship, as Khartoum accused Gaddafi of supporting Darfur rebels.
It’s worth mentioning that, the Sudan-Libya relation is improving since Gaddafi was ousted.