Gaddafi To Be Buried on Tuesday - Officials

The body of dead former Libyan Leader Muammar Gaddafi is seen inside a storage freezer in Misrata, Libya, 21 October 2011. EPA/BGNES

Libya's slain strongman Muammar Gaddafi is likely to be buried Tuesday, five days after he was killed in Sirte, and shortly after his body was displayed at a Misrata meat market, CNN reported, citing Libyan officials.

The bodies of Gaddafi, his son Mutassim and his former defense minister, Abu Baker Yunis, had been available for public viewing from a cold storage unit in recent days, except for being removed temporarily so autopsies could be conducted.

Gaddafi's family had issued a statement calling on the United Nations and Amnesty International to push Libya's new leadership "to hand over the bodies of the martyrs of their tribe so they can be buried according to Islamic rites," a pro-Gaddafi TV station reported.

Anees al-Sharif, a spokesman for the National Transitional Council's military arm in Tripoli, told CNN on Monday that Gadhafi was likely to be put to rest Tuesday.

The day earlier, Mustafa Abdul Jalil -- the chairman of the same council, which is now leading Libya -- said a group had been established to deal with how to handle the ex-leader's body.

No other details were immediately available as to exactly where and who would bury Gaddafi.

The National Transitional Council and the United Nations have called for an independent investigation into the death of the man who ruled Libya for 42 years. Human Rights Watch, in a statement issued Monday, described his and Mutassim's deaths as "still unexplained."

Mahmoud Jibril, Libya's interim prime minister, has said Gaddafi's right arm was wounded when a gunbattle erupted between the anti- and pro-Gaddafi fighters as his captors attempted to load him into a vehicle.

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