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Luis Moreno-Ocampo orders investigation after witnesses confirm government buying containers of Viagra-type drugs The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court is likely to add rape to the war crimes charges against Colonel Muammar Gaddafi of Libya on the back of mounting evidence that sexual attacks on women are being used as a weapon in the conflict. Luis Moreno-Ocampo told reporters at the UN building in New York that there were strong indications that hundreds of Libyan women had been raped in the Libyan government’s clampdown on the popular uprising, and that Gaddafi himself had ordered the violations as a form of punishment. The prosecutor said there was even evidence that the government had been handing out doses of Viagra to soldiers to encourage sexual attacks. Moreno-Ocampo said that rape was a new tactic for the Libyan regime. “That’s why we had doubts at the beginning, but now we are more convinced. Apparently, [Gaddafi] decided to punish, using rape.” The actions of the Libyan regime in brutally repressing the populist revolt were referred by the UN security council to the ICC in February. Moreno-Ocampo has asked the court’s judges to issue arrest warrants for three top leaders – Gaddafi himself, his son Saif al-Islam and the regime’s head of intelligence Abdullah al-Sanoussi. Procedurally, an extra charge of rape is likely to be added to the existing accusations after the arrest warrants have been issued. Currently, the three men stand accused of murder and persecution relating to the killings of demonstrators at the beginning of the conflict as well as the mistreatment and disappearance of prisoners. Some of the charges relate to the actions of mercenaries employed by the regime and unleashed on areas under rebel control. The ICC prosecutors have been collecting evidence relating to Saif’s orders to the mercenary groups. The issue of rape in the Libyan conflict was put into stark relief when a woman called Iman al-Obeidi burst into the Rixos hotel in Tripoli on 26 March and declared to press reporters gathered there that she had been gang raped. She was dragged away by Libyan guards and held for three days, but then released and managed to flee the country. She has now arrived in Romania where she is being cared for at a UN refugee camp. The ICC prosecutor said that evidence of the use of Viagra as a government policy was mounting. “They were buying containers with products to enhance the possibility to rape, and we are getting information in detail confirming the policy. We are trying to see who was involved,” he said. Muammar Gaddafi Libya Middle East Africa Arab and Middle East unrest War crimes International criminal court International criminal justice Ed Pilkington guardian.co.uk