Gaddafi Dead: Video Shows Body Stored in Commercial Freezer (VIDEO)
Gaddafi's Body Stored in Market Freezer While Officials Determine Burial
Gaddafi’s body remains on a bloodied mattress in a commercial freezer in Misrata, Libya, while Libyan officials determine how to dispose of the body.
The video uploaded Friday by Reuters shows the scratches and bruises his body accumulated when the dictator was paraded through the streets of Sirte. At one point, the video zooms in to reveal possible cigarette burns on Gaddafi’s chest. Gaddafi also sustained a fatal bullet wound in his left temple.
Upon capturing the dictator, citizens pushed and prodded his body towards a pick-up truck in his home town of Sirte. Citizens used their cell phones to snap shots of his dying body in a disillusioned state.
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Some are arguing to stall Gaddafi’s burial and keep his body in the freezer for multiple days so that Libyans can visit the body and verify his death.
Opinions vary on how the body should be disposed; after CIA officials and Navy SEALs killed Osama Bin Laden in May, his body was dropped in the North Arabian Sea to avoid any monuments or shrines being built for his body.
There similar concerns over the handling of Gaddafi’s body since he maintained several loyal followers after he was ousted from power in August. The current Transitional Council will attempt to keep peace in the transitioning country to ensure the proper installment of a new government.
Although the National Transitional Council announced they would respect Muslim burial rights and bury Gaddafi’s body within 24 hours, the U.N. High Commission for Human Rights is calling for an investigation.
“More details are needed to ascertain whether he was killed in some form of fighting or was executed after his capture,” said UNHCR spokesman Rupert Colville said in a statement.
Libya’s Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril has reported that according to the forensics report, Gaddafi was shot once in the arm when found in the sewer tunnel, and then shot in the head in transit from the tunnel to the hospital.
“When the car was moving it was caught in crossfire between the revolutionaries and Gaddafi forces in which he was hit by a bullet in the head',” Jibril said in a statement released Thursday afternoon.
“The forensic doctor could not tell if it came from the revolutionaries or from Gaddafi's forces," he added.
Jibril then went on to add that Gaddafi died minutes before reaching the hospital.
Others argue that Gaddafi, after being paraded through the streets of Sirte, was assassinated by a bullet to the head on the ambulance ride to the hospital in Misrata.
However, such an informal execution with no chance for trial would not shed a democratic light on Libya’s new government.
“It could be for this reason that Libya's interim prime minister, Mahmoud Jibril, said that Gaddafi was killed from a bullet to the head during crossfire between government fighters and his loyalists,” contends The Daily Mail.
Regardless of how he died, both President Obama and Libya Prime Minister Jibril comment that the developments serve as a promising future for Libya.
“We have been waiting for this moment for a long time,” said Jibril.
Obama stated, “This marks the end of a long and painful chapter for Libya.”
Although he was ousted from power in late August, Gaddafi loyalists continued to resist the new Libyan government, prolonging an eight-month civil war and halting the country’s political progression.
The dictator ruled Libya with an iron fist for 42 years.
The media is circulating footage of Libyans celebrating the death of Gaddafi. The dictator’s death signifies that the civil war is effectively over, and there is a promising future of the Libyan people.
With the death of the dictator, questions arise concerning the future of Libya’s government. Critics wonder if the Transitional Council will be able to uphold a democratic government without the need for military support.
Gaddafi was wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, for crimes against humanity. It was believed that after rebels captured Tripoli and were unable to find Gaddafi there, that he was hiding in his hometown of Sirte, which is where he was killed Thursday.
VIDEO: Gaddafi's body is being stored in a commercial freezer in Misrata
