Libya will rule by Sharia law, the country's transitional leader proclaimed during a ceremony declaring "liberation."
Islamic Sharia law, a controversial code for living that governs observant Muslims' lives, will be the "basic source" of legislation from now on, said Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, chairman of the National Transitional Council, during a ceremony that marked the end of Libya's eight-month civil war.
Existing laws that contradict the teachings of Islam will be nullified, he said.
The announcement came three days after Moammar Khadafy's gruesome death - which ended his brutal four-decade reign.
"We are now united. We have become brothers in love," Abdul-Jalil said during the celebration Sunday in Benghazi, as a crowd waved red, black and green flags. "This revolution was looked after by God to achieve victory."
Libyan National Transitional Council chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil in Benghazi on Sunday. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)
Leaders will form an interim government within a month, Abdul-Jalil said, in anticipation of elections to put a new parliament in place. The country will also set up new Islamic banks that ban charging interest.
Handing over the Lockerbie bomber should be high on the new government's priority list, Secretary of State Clinton said on ABC's "This Week."
"I will raise it with the new Libyan government," she said. "We want to see him returned to prison, preferably in Scotland, where he was serving the sentence. But if not, elsewhere, because we thought it was a miscarriage of justice that he was released from the sentence that had been imposed for the ghastly bombing of Pan Am 103."
President Obama also weighed in.
"The Libyan authorities should also continue living up to their commitments to respect human rights, begin a national reconciliation process, secure weapons and dangerous materials, and bring together armed groups under a unified civilian leadership," Obama said in a statement released Sunday.
Meanwhile, an autopsy confirmed the Khadafy's life ended with a bullet to the head. It is still unclear, however, under what circumstances Libya's former despot received the fatal head wound on Thursday.
Libya's chief pathologist, Dr. Othman al-Zintani, said only that Khadafy died from a shot to the head, according to Reuters.
He would not disclose further details or elaborate on the dictator's final moments, saying he would first deliver a full report to the attorney general.
"He died because of a gunshot wound. It is obvious," the doctor said, according to Reuters. "There are still several issues. We have to pass[the report] to the prosecutor general. But everything will be revealed publicly. Nothing will be hidden."
The autopsy, carried out secretly, was done in a morgue, Reuters reported. The body is expected to go back to the commercial freezer in a Misrata shopping mall where it has been on public display.
The United Nations is investigating Khadafy's death. Meanwhile, most Libyans do not appear to be mourning his demise.
"If [Khadafy] was taken to court, this would create more chaos, and would encourage his supporters," Salah Zlitni, 31, who owns a pizza parlor in downtown Tripoli, told The Associated Press. "Now it's over."
