WEB DESK: Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the prominent son of Libya’s former leader Muammar Gaddafi, has reportedly been killed in Libya, according to statements from officials and coverage by local media.
His lawyer, Khaled al-Zaidi, and political adviser, Abdulla Othman, shared the news of 53-year-old’s death on Tuesday through separate Facebook posts. However, they did not provide detailed information about the incident. Libyan news platform Fawasel Media referenced Othman, who claimed that armed attackers killed Gaddafi at his home in Zintan, a town situated around 136 kilometers southwest of the capital, Tripoli.
Later, Gaddafi’s political team issued a statement accusing “four masked assailants” of staging a “cowardly and treacherous assassination.” The statement detailed that the attackers broke into his house, disabled the security cameras to erase evidence, and that Gaddafi resisted during the attack.
Khaled al-Mishri, former head of Libya’s internationally recognized High State Council, called for a comprehensive and transparent investigation to uncover the circumstances surrounding the killing in a post on social media.
Although Saif al-Islam Gaddafi never officially held a government position under his father’s regime, he was widely perceived as Muammar Gaddafi’s closest confidant and possible successor during the period spanning from 2000 to 2011. His father’s rule abruptly ended that year amid widespread revolt, culminating in Muammar Gaddafi’s death at the hands of opposition forces.
In the aftermath of these events, Saif al-Islam was captured by Libyan rebel forces while trying to flee the country. He was detained in Zintan until 2017 when he was released following a general amnesty. Since his release, he lived a largely quiet life in the same town where he eventually met his death.
Born in June 1972 in Tripoli, Saif al-Islam was Muammar Gaddafi’s second son and once seen as his successor. Educated in Western institutions like the London School of Economics, he cultivated a reputation as a reform-minded intellectual. Fluent in English, he championed modernization initiatives for Libya, advocating for constitutional reforms, improved human rights policies, and enhanced international diplomatic relations. He was instrumental in negotiating Libya’s decision to abandon its weapons of mass destruction program and played a key role in securing compensation for victims of the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing over Lockerbie in 1988.
However, his earlier image as a progressive diplomat shifted dramatically during Libya’s 2011 uprising against his father’s regime. Saif al-Islam emerged as one of Muammar Gaddafi’s staunchest defenders. He publicly supported the regime’s violent suppression of dissent and referred to opposition fighters as “rats.” In an interview with Reuters at the height of the rebellion, he declared that the regime would fight until its last “man, woman, and bullet,” even warning that Libya risked descending into chaos fueled by bloodshed and infighting.
During this period, Saif al-Islam was accused of overseeing torture and severe crackdowns on anti-regime protestors. By February 2011, international sanctions were imposed on him by the United Nations, including travel bans. The International Criminal Court also issued an arrest warrant for him on charges of crimes against humanity.
Following the fall of Tripoli to rebel control later that year, he attempted to escape Libya disguised as a Bedouin tribesman but was apprehended by a Zintan-based militia group on a desert road. He was subsequently detained and faced numerous legal challenges, including a conviction and death sentence handed down in absentia by a Tripoli court in 2015 for alleged war crimes.
After his release from detention in 2017, Saif al-Islam kept a low profile to avoid retribution. However, he resurfaced in November 2021 with a polarizing bid for Libya’s presidency. His candidacy sparked outrage among anti-Gaddafi factions across the country and led to his disqualification due to his prior conviction. When he tried to appeal this decision via legal channels, armed groups disrupted the proceedings by barring access to courthouses.
The controversies surrounding his presidential run added significant strain to Libya’s fragile political landscape at the time, contributing to delays that derailed the 2021 election and deepened the nation’s political stalemate.
