Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki yesterday demanded guarantees that Libya’s ex-premier Baghdadi al-Mahmudi will get a fair trial and not be harmed physically as conditions for handing him over.

Libya has the right to judge its former premier

“We will demand all guarantees for a fair trial and that there will be no physical harm” to Mr Mahmudi, said Mr Marzouki at a joint press conference with Libyan leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil when asked when Tunisia will hand over slain strongman Muammar Gaddafi’s Premier.

“We have our values that we stand for. So we ask for your patience,” he added.

Mr Mahmudi is currently incarcerated in Mornaguia, near Tunis, and Amnesty International has urged Tunisia not to extradite him, saying he risks being subjected to “serious human rights violations.”

His defence team says that he fears for his life if he is returned to Libya as he is the sole holder of Libyan state secrets since Colonel Gaddafi was killed on October 20.

Tunisian courts have twice approved the Libyan request to extradite Mr Mahmudi, who has been battling against it on the grounds that he has formally applied for refugee status in Tunisia.

But his extradition can only takes place if Mr Marzouki approves it.

The 70-year-old Mahmudi, prime minister until the final days of Col Gaddafi’s regime, was arrested on September 21 on Tunisia’s southwestern border with Algeria and jailed for entering the country illegally.

According to his defence team, his extradition is not possible until the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees rules on his application for political refugee status in Tunisia.

Mr Mahmudi’s extradition request concerns charges of inciting rape in the town of Zuwarah in northwestern Libya during the anti-Gaddafi revolution, according to his defence team.

Earlier yesterday, Mr Marzouki who is on his first state visit abroad since being sworn in as head of state in mid-December, told a meeting of civil society groups in Tripoli that Libya had the right to judge the former premier.

“As is our right to demand the extradition of (ousted Tunisian president Zine El Abidine) Ben Ali to try him for crimes he committed, you also have the right to ask for the extradition of Mahmudi,” he said. Ben Ali was toppled last January in a popular uprising triggered by the self-immolation of a Tunisian vegetable vendor.