Lawyer labels Gaddafi sentence 'judicially sanctioned execution'

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The lawyer representing Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of the slain Libyan leader, before the International Criminal Court condemned as a "show trial" the proceedings leading up to the death sentence that was passed on him in Tripoli on Tuesday. "The trial has been declared illegal by Libya's own justice minister," said British trial lawyer John Jones, who has led efforts to have Gaddafi brought to the international tribunal in The Hague, where he would not face the death penalty. "The whole thing is illegitimate from start to finish... It's judicially sanctioned execution," he told Reuters. Gaddafi faces charges at the ICC relating to brutal reprisals meted out to protesters taking part in the 2011 revolution that ended his father's decades-long rule. The court, which has no police force of its own, relies on states to cooperate voluntarily with its arrest warrants. Life imprisonment is the heaviest penalty it can impose. (Reporting By Thomas Escritt)