Profile: Libyan rebel commander Abdel Hakim Belhaj (Jihadist, Taliban, former CIA prisoner)
BBC ^ | 5 September 2011 Last updated at 12:59 ET
As leader of the newly formed Tripoli Military Council, Abdel Hakim Belhaj is arguably the most powerful military man in the Libyan capital.
He stood victorious inside Col Muammar Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziya compound last month, after fighters from his Tripoli Brigade broke through the defences of the ousted leader's fortress in the heart of the city.
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Mr Belhaj - known in the jihadi world as Abu Abdullah al-Sadiq - commanded the now defunct Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG).
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There, Mr Belhaj is alleged to have developed "close relationships" with al-Qaeda leaders and Taliban chief Mullah Omar, according to an arrest warrant issued by the Libyan government in 2002.
The warrant says that he was based in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, from where he ran and financed training camps for Arab mujahideen fighters.
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After the 11 September attacks and the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, he and most of the LIFG leaders fled that country as well, only for Mr Belhaj to be arrested in 2004 in Thailand by the CIA and then handed over to Col Gaddafi's government.
Mr Belhaj spent time in Tripoli's notorious Abu Selim Prison, before being freed in 2010 under a "de-radicalisation" drive championed by Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of the Libyan leader.
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"He was rendered by the CIA, he was captured, abducted together with his pregnant wife and flown on the so-called black flight to Tripoli for his interrogation," he said.
Mr Bouckaert said Mr Belhaj was one of about eight or nine suspects who were abducted and handed over to the Libyan intelligence service.
"From the files it's very clear [CIA agents] were present in some of the interrogations themselves."
Mr Belhaj was held in Tripoli's notorious Abu Selim prison for seven years, where he says he was "regularly tortured".
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
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