Clooney's fiancée to take on the International Criminal Court

As George Clooney’s fiancée, Amal Alamuddin will have to get used to constant scrutiny from a celebrity obsessed public.

But soon she will come before judges of a very different kind when she represents one of Colonel Gaddafi’s most notorious henchmen, who is fighting for a fair trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The human rights barrister will argue that Abdullah al Senussi, the former dictator’s ruthless intelligence chief who oversaw torture, assassinations and town square hangings, cannot receive a fair trial in his native country and must be sent to The Hague.

Senussi was charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity by the ICC, along with Gaddafi’s second son Saif al-Islam, in 2011.

United Nations rules stated that the ICC must host the trial unless Libya could prove it was “willing and able genuinely” to carry out a fair hearing itself.

Last October The Hague court ruled that Senussi could be tried in Libya, despite claims he had been mistreated after being extradited from Mauritania, where he had fled after Gaddafi’s downfall.

The ICC also overlooked the fact the Libyan authorities had refused to let Alamuddin or any of his ICC-appointed legal defence team visit Senussi in prison to discuss his case.

Speaking to the Telegraph, Ms Alamuddin said: “At this stage the ICC case is not about whether Mr Gaddafi and Mr Al-Senussi are guilty of committing crimes against humanity; it is about where their trial should be held.

“In Libya - where they will face a show trial and then be executed- or before an international court in The Hague?

“No one is arguing that there should be no trial. But we are arguing that there should be justice.”

As one of Gaddafi’s closest aides Senussi has been implicated in an infamous Libyan massacre in 1996, in which more than 1,000 inmates were killed at the Abu Salim prison in Tripoli.

And, in 1999, he was tried in absentia in France and sentenced to life imprisonment for the shooting down of a UTA airliner over Niger a decade earlier.

Alamuddin is preparing to appeal against the ICC’s original decision claiming the 64-year-old must be sent to The Hague to stand trial.

She told The Observer: “A scary precedent has been set.

“The ICC made its decision despite the fact that Libya did not allow us a single visit to Senussi.”

Alamuddin was hired for the case by Ben Emmerson QC, the UN Special Rapporteur on counter-terrorism and human rights, who she worked as counsel for when he was investigating the use of drones.

The pair also worked together to defend WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in extradition proceedings following an application from Sweden.

Mr Emmerson spoke out about the injustice of the ICC’s “shocking decision” on Senussi when it was announced last October and confirmed he would be appealing.

He described the Libyan justice system as “in a state of collapse” and added: “It is incapable of conducting fair trials of any Gaddafi-era officials".

Alamuddin, who has also worked as an adviser to former UN secretary general Kofi Annan and was picked last year by William Hague for a panel investigating rape as a war crime, said: "The whole point of the ICC is to be there when national systems can't do the job.

“Instead, it is giving a flawed, dangerous process the stamp of approval."

The 36-year-old barrister, who is based at London’s Doughty Street Chambers, sought out Senussi’s daughter, Anoud, after failing to get a visa for Libya.

Anoud had been kidnapped and jailed in Tripoli after visiting her father in prison but escaped and fled to London.

Now, after waiting six months for the ICC judges to give a date for the appeal. Alamuddin remains concerned she cannot access the detail needed to properly argue her client’s case.

She said: “The Hague court penalises us for not being in a position to give details of all the violations against our client, but there are details we cannot provide because we can't get to see him.”

The ICC’s reputation as a benchmark for global justice is at stake over its decision to back a Libyan trial.

Legal proceedings began last month with Senussi, looking ill and emaciated, appearing alongside numerous other defendants in a steel cage at the Al Hadba prison, where the trial is being held.

He claimed Libya had broken its promise to the ICC to find him a lawyer.

Prosecutors refused to let him see the evidence against him despite that fact he could face the death penalty.

The militia of Zintan who are holding Saif al-Islam have refused to hand him over to be tried while militia in Misrata are keeping another eight defendants prisoner. Six more were simply missing.

Mr Emmerson has condemned it as "a show trial without a trace of due process guarantees".

The Libya court process has been criticised by Amnesty International, the UN's panel on torture and the African Union's court.

Since being set up 12 years ago the ICC has secured just a two convictions, that of Congolese warlords Thomas Lubanga and Germain Katanga.