Saif al-Islam, the son of slain Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, should be tried before the International Criminal Court if justice is to be served, his lawyers said.

There will certainly be no justice in the case if the prosecution is based on evidence from torture...

“The only way for Libya and the Libyan people to have justice is for the ICC to try this case in a fair, impartial and independent manner,” he was quoted as saying in a defence document submitted to the court.

“There will certainly be no justice in the case if the prosecution is based on evidence from torture.

“I am not afraid to die but if you execute me after such a trial you should just call it murder,” he said.

The Hague-based ICC has issued warrants against both Saif and his late father’s spymaster, Abdullah Senussi, for committing crimes against humanity while trying to put down last year’s bloody revolt.

Saif has been in custody in the southern Libyan town of Zintan since November in the wake of the uprising that toppled Gaddafi after more than 40 years in power.

The ICC and the Libyan government are locked in a dispute over where Saif should be tried. “I would have liked to have been tried in Libya by Libyan judges under Libyan law in front of the Libyan people,” Saif was quoted as saying in the document, which was issued after ICC lawyers visited him last month.

“There will also be no truth if witnesses are faced with possible life sentences for simply testifying in my favour,” he said.

His international lawyer Melinda Taylor and four ICC staff members were freed earlier last month after being held in Libya for almost four weeks while visiting Saif on behalf of the court.

Ms Taylor said after her release that she believed it would be “impossible” for Saif to be tried in an independent and impartial manner in Libyan courts.