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Gadhafi's Body Put In Freezer So His Death Can Be Further Investigated
By
Jen Chung
Published Oct 21, 2011
Modified Oct 21, 2011
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By
Jen Chung
Published Oct 21, 2011
Modified Oct 21, 2011
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As more and more graphic videos and photographs emerge showing Libyan dictator Moammer Gadhafi's last moments and corpse, his burial has been delayed as leaders are apparently arguing over how to handle the burial and as the United Nations has called for an investigation into his death. The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said, "There seem to be four or five different versions of how he died. More details are needed to ascertain whether he was killed in the fighting or after his capture." Now, Gadhafi's body is in a meat locker (graphic image here).
Gadhafi was killed yesterday in Surt, Libya. It's believed a U.S. Predator drone struck his convoy; he was discovered wounded and hiding in a concrete pipe—the National Post has a graphic showing the strike and Gadhafi's pipe hideout. Rebel fighters dragged Gadhafi out and a graphic video—warning, it's graphic—shows them manhandling (as Jack Shafer puts it) him, as he apparently begs for mercy:
Photos (and videos) were later released of Gadhafi's corpse. The NY Times obituary remarks:
In death, as in life, his circumstances proved startling, with jerky video images showing him captured, bloody and disheveled, but alive. A separate clip showed his half-naked torso, with eyes staring vacantly and what appeared to be a gunshot wound to the head, as jubilant fighters fired into the air. In a third video, posted on YouTube, excited fighters hovered around his lifeless-looking body, posing for photographs and yanking his limp head up and down by the hair.
And the Times reports, "A forensic pathologist in New York, Dr. Michael Baden, said in observing the photos that there were as many as two bullet wounds and possibly four in Colonel Qaddafi’s head. From what he saw, he believed the shots were fired at fairly close range. 'It looks more like an execution than something that happened during a struggle,' said Dr. Baden, a former New York City medical examiner. 'Two pretty identical-looking wounds like that would have been hard to do from a distance.'"
According to BBC News, there's some talk of burying Gadhafi at sea, much the way Osama bin Laden was buried.
Tagged
burial
death
libya
moammer gadhafi
violence
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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