Libyan forces guarding Muammar Gaddafi's body in a cold storage room let in members of the public to view
the deposed leader for a second day, but the wounds that may hold the clue to how he died were covered up.
Gaddafi's body lay on a mattress on the floor of the cold room, as it did on Friday when hundreds of members of the public filed in to see for themselves that the man who ruled Libya for 42 years was dead.
But unlike the previous day, Gaddafi's body was covered by a blanket that left only his head exposed, hiding the bruises on his torso and scratch marks on his chest that had earlier been visible.
And, crucially, a Reuters reporter who viewed the body said, Gaddafi's head had been turned to the left. That meant a bullet hole that earlier could be seen on the left side of his face, just in front of his ear, could no longer be seen.
Guards overseeing Gaddafi's body handed out green surgical masks to dozens of people filing in to take a look because of the stench of rotting flesh filling the room.
The bullet hole in Gaddafi's head, and the other wounds, could help solve the riddle of whether, as Libya's new rulers said, he was shot in crossfire in a battle or, as some accounts suggest, he was killed by the fighters who caught him.
A local military commander in the city of Misrata, where the forces which captured him took his body, said ''over-enthusiastic'' fighters took matters into their own hands when they came face to face with the man they despise.
''We wanted to keep him alive but the young guys, things went out of control,'' he said speaking on condition of anonymity.
Few people in Libya - where thousands of people, including civilians, were killed by Gaddafi's forces in the seven-month rebellion - say they are troubled by the manner of his death.
But if he was indeed killed by his captors, it will cast doubt on the promises by Libya's new rulers to respect human rights and prevent reprisals. It would also embarrass Western governments which gave their wholehearted backing to the NTC.
