The relatives of Muammar Gaddafi are going to sue NATO for "war crimes" over the death of the former Libyan dictator, the family lawyer announced.

Gaddafi's will sue NATO in the International Criminal Court in the Hague on "war crime" charges, France-based Europe1 radio station quoted Gaddafi's family lawyer Marcel Ceccaldi as saying on Wednesday.

"They [relatives of the late dictator] will file a suit on war crime charges," Marcel Ceccaldi said, as cited by RIA Novosti.

The suit refers to the capture of the former dictator as we was trying to make his way out of his last stronghold Sirte as the Libyan rebels overwhelmed his defenses.

The fugitive dictator was captured in his last bastion and home town Sirte on last Thursday, after a convoy with which he tried to escape was attacked by NATO aircraft, a strike that was claimed by the French Air Force.

Gaddafi's vehicle was hit, and he tried to hide in a drainage pipe where he was captured by rebels. Video footage that was subsequently released showed that he was still alive after he was arrested but that he was covered in blood, and with gunshot wounds.

Reports about Gaddafi's death remain contradictory, with claims that he was shot and wounded while trying to escape. He is believed to have been beaten severely and then shot by the rebels.

His body was taken to Misrata where it was on display for five days in a commercial freezer before it was buried at an undisclosed location in the Libyan desert on Tuesday.

"NATO helicopters opened fire on [Gaddafi's] convoy...This convoy did not pose any threat to civilians. It was an operation to eliminate the Libyan leader, planned by the North Atlantic alliance," Gaddafi family's lawyer Ceccaldi explained.

The lawyer also criticized the decision to display Gaddafi's corpse at a shopping center in Misrata for four days.

Gaddafi, who ruled Libya for 42 years, died shortly after being captured alive by the National Council fighters near his hometown of Sirte last week. The UN human rights office, as well as Russia and the United States, have called for a probe into the deposed Libyan leader's extrajudicial killing.

On March 19, 2011, NATO-led international forces started air and rocket strikes against the Gaddafi regime under a UN Security Council mandate, with China and Russia abstaining in the UN SC vote.

Operation Odyssey Dawn was the US code name for the US part of the international military operation in Libya to enforce United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 during the initial period of 19–31 March 2011, which continued afterwards under NATO command as Operation Unified Protector.

The initial operation implemented a no-fly zone that was proposed during the 2011 Libyan civil war to prevent government forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi from carrying out air attacks on anti-Gaddafi forces.

The US initially had strategic command of the military intervention but passed complete military command of the operation to NATO and took up a support role on 31 March 2011.

NATO has already denied that its air strike against the convoy getting out of Sirte was the product of a targeted killing attempt on the former Libyan dictator, and has claimed that the convoy was a legitimate military target.

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