Leader of Libyan town holding Qaddafi's son refuses to turn him over to new government

“We are all Libyans,” Taher al-Tourki, head of the Zintan Council, told The Daily Telegraph. “If you ask to take him to Tripoli, it is like you are saying it is a different country.

We have the same courts here. We could put him on trial here – why not?”

Zintan’s refusal to give up their prized captive, announced on the day that another brigade caught Col Gaddafi’s right-hand man, Abdullah Senussi, demonstrated the weak hold the central authorities have on the country.

The Zintan brigade, which spearheaded the push on Tripoli in August, is resented in Tripoli in particular for its determination to hold on to its weapons, leading to a number of firefights.