Libya said yesterday Mauritania had agreed to hand over Muammar Gaddafi’s former spy chief for trial on home soil, turning down rival extradition requests from France and a war crimes court.

“We have obtained an agreement from Mauritania to deliver (Abdullah) Senussi to Libya where he will receive a fair trial. No date has been decided upon but it will be very soon,” government spokesman Nasser al-Manaa said.

“We respect the judicial procedures in Mauritania which will take time to finish, but it is simply a question of time.”

Mr Manaa was part of a Libyan delegation which arrived in Nouakchott onMonday to lobby for the handover of Gaddafi’s feared former right-hand man, arrested at the Mauritanian capital’s airport on Friday. Mauritanian police said he had arrived on a flight from Casablanca in Morocco, travelling on a false passport.

Libya’s vice premier Mustafa Abu Shagur said on his Twitter account on Tuesday that he had secured the extradition of Mr Senussi after talks with Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz.

The comments on the social networking site came after he told journalists in Nouakchott Aziz had promised “something positive” with regards to the extradition.

“We are determined to get Senussi back, because this man has committed crimes against Libyans,” Abu Shagur had said on his arrival in Mauritania.

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