After being flown to the capital on a military Hercules C-130 transport jet late on Monday, Saadi Gaddafi the former footballer was given luxurious lodgings in Villa Verde, a state guesthouse next to the presidential palace. The complex is now his well guarded refuge of calm from the war still waging in his homeland.
He joined a clique of Libyan generals in the city. Among them are Gen Ali Sharif al-Rifi, Libya's ex-air force chief and Mansour Dao, its security supremo, who are ensconced in the nearby Villa du Conseil de líEntente, a high-walled hillside complex of bungalows boasting cool verandas and handsome colonnaded administration buildings.
"Our understanding is, like the others, he's being detained in a state guest house," US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said of Gaddafi's son on Wednesday. "It's essentially a house arrest in this government facility, is our understanding."
Marou Amadou, Niger's youthful justice minister and government spokesman, said Niger is caught between a diplomatic rock and a political hard place by the arrival of Gaddafi's associates.
"We don't know if they will stay in the long term because we did not invite them," he said. "But remember Libya is a country at war so we cannot throw them back. At the same time we will uphold international obligations not to allow anyone subject to a travel ban to leave to another country. So they are stuck."
For more: Libya: Saadi Gaddafi tracked down to playboy hideaway in Niger - Telegraph
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