Jeff Byrne

Libyan despot Moammar Gadhafi's life came to an ignominious end on the outskirts of his ancestral home Sirte on Friday. He died as he had lived, brutally.

Few, if any, believe interim prime minister Mahmoud Jibril who said Gadhafi had died in a crossfire between loyalists and revolutioaries as he tried to flee.

That explanation was exposed -- along with a number of other versions of his death -- after mobile phone video went viral on the internet and television showing the deposed leader being taunted and savagely beaten by an enraged, lawless mob.

He had been found cowering in a concrete culvert, pleading for his life. Video evidence clearly shows he was alive when captured. His discovery was apparently a shock. Most people thought he had long left Libya for a safer environment and, for this reason, it seems there were no protocols in place for what to do if he was found. A few officers wanted to contact headquarters for instructions but the rag-tag mob -- with disregard for any chain of command even if there was one -- shoved them aside.

Gadhafi was later shot in the head.

Libya is now on the brink of chaos. The one thing that held the revolutionaries together was their opposition to and hatred of the Gadhafi regime. Now there is fertile ground for power struggles that could distract from the enormous task of rebuilding the nation's infrastructure and the institution of some form of democracy.

Gadhafi's death at the hands of an unruly mob is an ominous sign for the future. Few people doubt that Gadhafi deserved the death penalty but many believe it should have been imposed by a legally constitued court.

There are those wo believe Gadhafi should have been put on trial for war crimes in the International Criminal Court. Not least among them is Doctor Jim Swires who lost a daughter in the Lockerbie bombing. Whatever this monster was responsible for, Swires does not believe he was behind Lockerbie.

The world has been denied justice in the same way that Gadhafi brutally murdered his own citizens and others around the world. The same way he denied justice for his people for two generations.

And his killers are down in the sewers from which Gadhafi emerged.

The National Transitional Council has a massive challenge to restore order and unite the tribes of Libya if the nation is to progress and prosper.

Libya, now more than ever, needs a leader with the wisdom of a Nelson Mandela.

But the fruits of power are tantalizing.