Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, was killed in an apparent assassination at his home in the northwestern Libyan city of Zintan, the head of his political team announced on Tuesday. He was 53 years old.
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi was once seen as the successor to his dictator father – who was executed after his government collapsed at the height of the Arab Spring protests in 2011 – and had plotted in recent years to return to Libya’s political scene.
Abdullah Othman, his political adviser, said in a social media statement that four masked assailants stormed Saif al-Islam Gaddafi’s residence, disabled surveillance cameras and shot him dead in a “treacherous and cowardly” attack.
There was no official confirmation from Libyan authorities, and there was no immediate comment from the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has long called for the young Gaddafi’s arrest on charges of crimes against humanity.
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi was born on June 25, 1972 in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, as the second son of Muammar Gaddafi, who ruled Libya from 1969 until his overthrow and death in 2011.
On February 21, 2011, as protests spread across Libya, Colonel Saif al-Islam Gaddafi gave a televised speech warning that continued violence would lead to civil war, chaos, and poverty. This speech marked a decisive break from his reformist personality and publicly aligned himself with the government’s violent crackdown on demonstrators.
In June 2011, the ICC issued arrest warrants for both Saif al-Islam Gaddafi and his father for crimes against humanity committed during the suppression of the rebellion.
After the fall of Tripoli, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi evaded capture for several months before being captured by militias in the western Libyan city of Zintan in November 2011.
He remained detained there until June 2017, when the militia announced his release under a controversial general amnesty law passed by Libya’s lower house of parliament.
In November 2021, he re-entered the political scene, registering as a candidate in Libya’s long-delayed presidential elections.
His candidacy caused bitter divisions, with supporters portraying him as a symbol of stability and opponents denouncing him as a reminder of authoritarian rule and unresolved war crimes. The election was then postponed indefinitely due to political deadlock and security concerns.
Before his death, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi was keen to one day return to politics and had begun putting together “proposals for reconciliation” in recent months, a person close to him told CNN.
In a statement on Tuesday, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi’s team called on Libya’s judiciary, the international community, the United Nations and human rights organizations to launch an independent and transparent investigation to identify and prosecute those responsible.
