Muammar Gaddafi’s body lies in a refrigerated meat store in Misurata, with hundreds of Libyans queuing for hours to catch a glimpse of the man who ruled their homeland with an iron fist for 42 years.

Video footage pointed to a ‘lynching process’ rather than cross-fire

The moments leading up to the despot’s death remain shrouded in mystery. There is also disagreement on how – and where – to bury him.

National Transitional Council officials claim Col Gaddafi was killed by a stray bullet while being taken to hospital, but in a video posted online on Friday, a young NTC fighter claims he shot Libya’s onetime despot twice after he was captured, fatally wounding him.

Col Gaddafi was found by NTC forces cowering inside a drain pipe outside his hometown of Sirte, having fled his convoy as it was hit by heavy gunfire. Initial NTC reports on Thursday said he had been caught alive but subsequently accidentally killed in cross-fire between NTC troops and Gaddafi loyalists as he was being taken to hospital.

But amateur footage taken mo­ments after Col Gaddafi’s capture show the dictator being manhandled by a jubilant and rowdy crowd. He is bleeding profusely from the left side of his head and the left side of his lower abdomen, and although dazed and confused, is clearly conscious and able to stand up.

In another video, Col Gaddafi lies on the ground in a stupor. He is dragged up from the lapels as someone points a revolver to his head. People hit him in the chest and around the head, as one man snarls “shut up dog!”

Confusion around the death was further fuelled by a video posted online last Friday. In it, a young NTC fighter claims he fatally shot Col Gaddafi after capturing him.

“I fired two bullets at him, one hit under his armpit, the other his head. He did not die immediately. It took him half an hour,” he said.

The seeming incongruities bet­ween the NTC’s official explanation for Col Gaddafi’s death and the amateur footage have led to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch to call for an investigation into the death.

According to a Syrian-based television station, Col Gaddafi’s wife Safiya has asked the UN to investigate his death and that of their son, Mutassim who also died in mysterious circumstances.

He was also captured last Thursday, separately from his father. Amateur footage online shows him calmly smoking a cigarette and drinking water from a bottle while in captivity. He was wounded in the neck but appeared healthy.

It was subsequently announced that he was dead. Images of his body reveal a fresh wound, at the top of his chest.

Forensic expert Anthony Abela Medici poured scorn on the NTC’s official explanation for Col Gaddafi’s death. The sequence of events surmised from the video footage, he said, pointed to a “lynching process” rather than the cross-fire explanation given by the NTC.

Reuters footage of Col Gaddafi’s body lying inside a refrigerated room shows Col Gaddafi half-naked. A bullet hole can be seen in his lower abdomen, with another hole in Col Gaddafi’s right temple.

According to Dr Abela Medici, the head wound is consistent with a 9mm calibre bullet hitting Col Gaddafi’s head. Powder marks around the hole, he said, would indicate that he was shot at close range. Dr Abela Medici also speculated that the head shot might have been inflicted once Col Gaddafi was already dead.

“The image is not very clear,” he told The Sunday Times, “but there seems to be no reaction around the entry hole, which could indicate that the bullet in the head was post-mortem rather than pre-mortem.”

He dismissed suggestions that the bullet wound shown in the Reuters footage could have been the source of all the blood pouring from Col Gaddafi’s head in the footage following his capture.

NTC resists investigation

A 9mm bullet wound to the head would result in immediate death, he explained. Had Col Gaddafi been shot there, “he certainly wouldn’t have been walking around, wiping blood from his face,” Dr Abela Medici said.

But the NTC has resisted calls for a detailed investigation into the former tyrant’s death. Although they were investigating the circumstances surrounding his death, there were conflicting reports until last night whether a post-mortem would be carried out.

If an investigation were to find that Col Gaddafi was summarily executed or killed in cold blood, it would constitute a war crime in violation of the Geneva Convention.

Concern over the manner in which Col Gaddafi was killed does not appear to be mirrored in Libya. International news outlets reported widespread joy at news of his death. One senior NTC official told the BBC that his death was deserved. “If they kill him 1,000 times, I think it will not pay back the Libyans what he has done,” he said.

Arsalan Alshinawi, a lecturer in International Relations at the University of Malta, also cautioned against Western outrage at events surrounding Col Gaddafi’s death.

“It is naive to try compare this event with what would have happened in London, New York or Paris”, Dr Alshinawi said.

“Killing Col Gaddafi was not about killing a man, just as killing Saddam was not about killing a man. These tyrants represented entire systems of oppression.”

He also suggested that Col Gaddafi’s death was ideal for the NTC and Libya.

“Libyans saw what happened when Saddam was captured and tried. They saw the expenses and complications, with Western nations saying he shouldn’t have been hanged. It was a circus. Col Gaddafi’s death means one less circus.”

With the NTC having rebuffed calls for a post-mortem, attention will now turn to Col Gaddafi’s burial. Reports in the international press indicate disagreements among NTC officials over where to bury the body, which is currently in Misurata.

What is certain is that the burial location will be kept secret in order to prevent the burial spot from becoming a shrine for Col Gaddafi loyalists.

The possibility of Col Gaddafi being buried at sea, as was done with Osama bin Laden earlier this year, has also been mooted.

Factbox on Gaddafi’s final days

Oct 9: NTC officials announce that key targets in Sirte, including its university campus and hospital, have been wrestled from Col Gaddafi loyalist control.

Oct 11: Sirte’s police HQ is captured by the NTC. Only two neighbourhoods of Sirte, Al-Dollar and Number Two, continue to hold out.

Oct 13: NTC forces say that only neighbourhood Number Two stands between themselves and the fall of Sirte.

Oct 13- 15: Col Gaddafi loyalist fighters launch a concerted counter-attack on NTC troops, pushing them back.

Oct 17: Bani Walid, which lies some 400 kilometres west of Sirte and is one of the final Col Gaddafi strongholds, is captured by NTC forces.

Oct 18: The siege of Sirte continues, with Col Gaddafi forces killing 21 and wounding over 100 NTC fighters.

Oct 20: Neighbourhood Number Two, surrounded and besieged by NTC forces, finally falls, bringing the two-month battle of Sirte to a close.

Col Gaddafi and his entourage leave Sirte in a convoy of 15 armed trucks, headed west. According to one of his bodyguards, the convoy was headed to the village where Col Gaddafi was born in the Jarif Valley.

The convoy is intercepted by Nato airstrikes. Col Gaddafi, injured in the abdomen and legs, flees on foot, eventually hiding in a drainpipe. His son Mutassim is also wounded in the neck and back, and is later pronounced dead.

Oct 21: The NTC places Col Gaddafi’s body in a refrigerated room in Misurata and invites the public to view the body. Hundreds of people queue for hours in order to catch a glimpse.

Amnesty International calls for an investigation into Col Gaddafi’s death. UN officials describe amateur footage of the capture as “disturbing”.

Oct 22: The NTC rules out the possibility of a post-mortem, although it says it is investigating the death.

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