Arya News - Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the most prominent son of Muammar Gaddafi, the late Libyan leader, has been killed by gunmen inside his home, his adviser said on Tuesday.
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the most prominent son of Muammar Gaddafi , the late Libyan leader, has been killed by gunmen inside his home, his adviser said on Tuesday.
Abdullah Othman Abdurrahim told al-Ahrar TV channel that Seif al-Islam was killed by a group of four unidentified men.
“Four armed men stormed the residence of Seif al-Islam Kadhafi after disabling surveillance cameras, then executed him,” Mr Abdurrahim was reported as saying.
The 53-year-old’s death was also confirmed by sources close to the family, his lawyer Khaled el-Zaydi, and Libyan media, but the circumstances were not immediately verified by them.
Saif al-Islam never held a position, but was regarded as one of Libya’s most important men - Marwan Naamani/AFP
“Seif al-Islam has fallen as a martyr,” his cousin, Hamid Kadhafi, told Libyan network al-Ahrar, adding that the family had no further details.
Media outlets said he had died in Zintan, in north-western Libya , although his whereabouts had long been unknown.
Al Arabiya, an Arabic language news channel, also reported that four assailants shot Saif al-Islam in his garden. The outlet said it was not yet clear who was responsible.
Libya’s Attorney General’s Office has opened an investigation into the alleged killing.
Despite holding no official position, Saif al-Islam was once seen as the most powerful figure in the oil-rich north African country after his autocrat father, who ruled for more than four decades until his death in 2011.
Muammar Gaddafi ruled Libya before his death in 2011 - STR/Reuters
He led talks on Libya abandoning its weapons of mass destruction and negotiated compensation for the families of those killed in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988.
Determined to rid Libya of its pariah status, he engaged with the West and championed himself as a reformer, calling for a constitution and respect for human rights.
Educated at the London School of Economics and a fluent English speaker, Saif al-Islam was once seen by many governments as the acceptable, Western-friendly face of Libya.
But when a rebellion broke out against Gaddafi’s long rule in 2011, Saif al-Islam immediately chose family and clan loyalties over his many friendships to become an architect of a brutal crackdown on rebels, whom he called rats.
Saif al-Islam fronted a crackdown on rebels in Tripoli - Paul Hackett/Reuters
Speaking at the time of the revolt, he said: “We fight here in Libya, we die here in Libya.”
He warned that rivers of blood would flow and the government would fight to the last man and woman and bullet.
After rebels took over Tripoli, the capital, Saif al-Islam tried to flee to neighbouring Niger dressed as a Bedouin tribesman.
The Abu Bakr Sadik Brigade militia captured him on a desert road and flew him to the western town of Zintan about one month after his father was hunted down and summarily shot dead by rebels. Saif al-Islam was detained there for the next six years.
In 2015, he was sentenced to death by firing squad by a court in Tripoli for war crimes .
Saif al-Islam was also wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague for war crimes. The court issued an arrest warrant against him for “murder and persecution”.
He spent years underground in Zintan to avoid assassination after he was released by the militia in 2017 under an amnesty law.
Saif al-Islam attended a hearing behind bars in Zintan in 2014 - Stringer/Reuters
Wearing a traditional Libyan robe and turban, he appeared in the southern city of Sabha in 2021 to file his candidacy for the presidential elections.
However, his candidacy was controversial and opposed by many of those who had suffered at the hands of his father’s rule. Powerful armed groups that emerged from the rebel factions that rose up in 2011 rejected it outright.
As the election process ground on in late 2021 with no real agreement on the rules, Saif al-Islam’s candidacy became one of the main points of contention.
He was disqualified because of his 2015 conviction, but when he tried to appeal the ruling, fighters blocked off the court. The ensuing arguments contributed to the collapse of the election process and Libya’s return to a political stalemate.
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