Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of Muammar Gaddafi, killed by masked assailants in Zintan
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Masked assailants have killed Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the prominent son of Libya’s late leader Muammar Gaddafi, at his residence in the western town of Zintan, his political team announced Tuesday.
The 53-year-old’s lawyer Khaled al-Zaidi and adviser Abdulla Othman confirmed his death via Facebook posts, with Libyan outlet Fawasel Media quoting Othman that armed men carried out the attack some 136 km southwest of Tripoli.
A statement from Gaddafi’s team detailed how four masked intruders stormed the house, engaged him in a clash, and shut off security cameras in what they termed a “cowardly and treacherous assassination” to hide their crimes. Former High State Council head Khaled al-Mishri demanded an urgent, transparent probe on social media.
Saif al-Islam, born in Tripoli in June 1972, emerged as his father’s de facto number two from 2000 onward, despite holding no formal office. A London School of Economics graduate and fluent English speaker, he projected a reformist image, spearheading Libya’s early 2000s thaw with the West, including negotiations to dismantle weapons of mass destruction programs and compensate families of Pan Am Flight 103 victims from the 1988 Lockerbie bombing. He championed human rights, a new constitution, and civil society’s global role in his academic work.
That image shattered during the 2011 rebellion against Muammar Gaddafi’s rule. Saif staunchly defended the regime, orchestrating a violent suppression of protesters he branded “rats.”
In Reuters interviews amid the uprising, he declared, “We fight here in Libya, we die here in Libya,” warning of “rivers of blood” and predicting decades of anarchy as “everyone will want to be president or emir.” By February 2011, he faced UN sanctions, an ICC arrest warrant for crimes against humanity, and a travel ban over torture allegations.
Captured while fleeing to Niger disguised as a Bedouin, after rebels overran Tripoli, he was imprisoned in Zintan by the Abu Bakr Sadik Brigade. Libya assumed trial jurisdiction from the ICC, and a 2015 Tripoli court issued a death sentence in absentia. Freed in 2017 under a general pardon, he remained in Zintan, living covertly to dodge assassins.
His 2021 presidential candidacy reignited divisions, drawing fierce opposition from anti-Gaddafi groups across Libya’s east and west. Disqualified due to his conviction, his appeal attempt saw fighters blockade the court, stalling the election and perpetuating the country’s political stalemate.