France said on Monday it wanted to try Libya's former spy chief, Abdullah al-Senussi, over a 1989 airliner bombing in Niger that killed 170 people including 54 French nationals, reports Reuters.
A senior Libyan commander said on Monday that his fighters had captured Senussi, who is also wanted by the International Criminal Court.
In 1999 a Paris court convicted six Libyans, including Senussi, and sentenced them in absentia to life imprisonment for the UTA bombing.
"A trial in the presence of the accused should be held in France," Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said.
"Senussi must be judged for the crimes he has committed," Valero said, adding that Paris would consult the various legal entities to ensure he is held accountable for the UTA bombing.
Following the killing of Muammar Gaddafi a month ago, his son Seif al-Islam, who was captured over the weekend, and Senussi were the only surviving Libyans on the wanted list of the ICC.
Read more of this report from Reuters. Read Mediapart's exclusive revelations about how French President Nicolas Sarkozy's senior staff mulled helping Senussi escape justice in return for commercial and arms deals with the Gaddafi regime, by clicking here.