Thought the tactics used by Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi to cling to power couldn't be any more bizarre? Thought you couldn't be any more disgusted by the way he's terrorized the people of his country?
Think again.
Now the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor says that there is evidence Qaddafi ordered the rape of hundreds of women to spread fear of his regime and curb dissent. And ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo also said there is evidence that Qaddafi may have distributed Viagra-type drugs to his troops "to enhance the possibility to rape."
Although Qaddafi has brutally suppressed dissent among Libyans for decades, the use of rape as a weapon appears to be a new tactic, Moreno-Ocampo told BBC News. "It was never the pattern he used to control the population. The rape is a new aspect of the repression. And that's why we had doubts at the beginning, but now we are more convinced," he said.
Apparently the charge wasn't included in the ICC arrest warrants for Qaddafi, his son Saif al-Islam Qaddafi and Libyan security official Abdullah el-Sanussi because the evidence of rape was discovered only recently. Charges may be added if ICC judges approve the arrest warrants, the Christian Science Monitor reports.
There is no official figure for how many women may have been raped so far in Libya.
Read more at the Christian Science Monitor.
In other news: Ja-Rule Turns Himself In, Heads to Prison.