Military commanders in the Libyan city of Misrata said on Saturday that no post-mortem would be carried out on the body of Muammar Qadhafi despite concerns over how the toppled dictator died.
Interim leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil said an investigation was being conducted into the circumstances of Qadhafi's killing following his capture, bloodied but still alive, during the fall of his hometown Sirte on Thursday, after several foreign governments and human rights watchdogs posed questions.
But the military leadership in Misrata, where Qadhafi's body had been stored in a vegetable market freezer overnight and was again put on display for hundreds of curious onlookers on Saturday, insisted the inquiry would involve no autopsy.
Questions remain over how Qadhafi met his end after NTC fighters hauled him out of a culvert where he was hiding following NATO air strikes on the convoy in which he had been trying to flee his falling hometown.
Mobile phone videos show him still alive at that point.
NTC leaders are adamant he was shot in the head when he was caught “in crossfire” between his supporters and new regime fighters soon after his capture.
Qadhafi's widow, Safia, who fled to Algeria in August, called on the United Nations to investigate the circumstances of her husband's death, Syria-based Arrai television said.
Libya's wanted former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi, meanwhile, surfaced in neighbouring Niger after apparently fleeing through the desert after the fall of the oasis town of Bani Walid on Monday in the penultimate battle of the conflict.
