Report of the assassination of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of Muammar Gaddafi

Libya.- Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, was assassinated by four people who quickly fled the scene after shooting him in his garden, in the city of Zintan, west of Libya, as reported this Tuesday by Al Arabiya.

Sources from Gaddafi’s political team indicated that “armed men disabled the surveillance cameras at Saif al-Islam’s residence“, adding that the victim confronted the attackers. For his part, Abdullah Othman, one of the political advisors of the deceased, published on social media that Saif al-Islam Gaddafi “is under God’s care,” without providing any details about the event. In addition, he confirmed that the attorney general opened an official investigation into the assassination to determine the circumstances of the incident and identify the perpetrators.

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Who was Saif al-Islam Gaddafi?

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, 53 years old, played a prominent role in Libyan public life before 2011. He did not hold any official position in the Government, but he led international negotiations and internal affairs before his father’s death. He had been sentenced to death in absentia on various charges, but the sentence, handed down in 2015, was overturned and the Libyan Supreme Court ordered a retrial. He had been imprisoned and released in the city of Zintan in June 2017, after having been held by a militia since 2011. Muammar Gaddafi was killed by opposition fighters during the 2011 Libyan uprising, supported by the intervention of NATO and its allies, which turned into a civil war, ending his four decades of rule in the North African country. Although large-scale hostilities have formally ended after the 2020 ceasefire, the country remains unstable, with a high risk of local clashes between rival armed groups and the persistent threat of terrorism.