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over to examine their backs. However, no exit gunshot wound was visible on the exposed
parts of the head of Muammar Gaddafi, a fact difficult to reconcile with claims he was shot
at close range, and the presumed entry gunshot wound on his head coincides with the
location of a shrapnel wound, apparently from a grenade thrown by one of his own guards.
As explained above, Mutassim Gaddafi had a major wound on his throat that did not exist
when he was filmed in the custody of Misrata fighters, strongly suggesting that the fatal
wound was inflicted on him while he was in the custody of the fighters.
No autopsies or investigations were carried out by any Libyan authority into the deaths of
at least 66 persons at the Mahari Hotel in Sirte, nor into the deaths of at least 103 persons
whose bodies were left behind at the scene of the final battle with the Gaddafi convoy. The
bodies were left out in the open until October 25, five days after the battle, when volunteer
workers from the city of Sirte came to collect them, already in a state of decomposition,
photograph their faces, and bury them in individually numbered plastic body bags in a
mass grave in Sirte.
The NTC launched a formal investigation into the death of Muammar Gaddafi on October
24. Mustafa Abdel Jalil, the NTC Chairman, announced that “in response to international
calls, we have started to put in place a commission tasked with investigating the
circumstances of Muammar Gaddafi’s death in the clash with his [inner] circle when he
was captured.” 74 The announcement by Abdel Jalil focused solely on the death of
Muammar Gaddafi. No similar investigation into the deaths at the Mahari Hotel has been
announced. The transitional authorities have placed the investigation into Muammar
Gaddafi’s death in the hands of the chief prosecutor of Misrata.
On March 27, 2012, the chief prosecutor of Misrata, Abdelatif al-Hamali, told Human Rights
Watch that his investigation into the death of Muammar Gaddafi was “nearly finished” and
that he had received cooperation from the Misrata militias implicated. 75 The investigation
into the death of Mutassim Gaddafi was proving to be much more difficult, the prosecutor
74 “Libya’s NTC Orders Probe Into Gaddafi Killing: Chairman Orders Investigation Into Killing of Former Libyan Leader and
Says NTC Will Form Government ‘Within Two Weeks’,” Al Jazeera, October 24, 2012,
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2011/10/2011102413358850809.html.
75 Human Rights Watch interview with Chief Prosecutor of Misrata Abdelatif al-Hamali, Misrata, March 27, 2012.
DEATH OF A DICTATOR 44