Muammar Gaddafi’s son, Saif al-Islam, killed in Libya

Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi, the oldest son of the former long-time Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, has been killed, his political advisor said on Tuesday.

He died aged 53, and as of 2021, had plans to run for president. 

Saif’s French lawyer, Marcel Ceccaldi, told the AFP news agency that he “was killed today at 2:00 pm [1200 GMT]... in Zintan in his home by a four-man commando”. 

Speaking to local television, his political adviser, Abdullah Othman Abdurrahim, said that four unidentified assailants disabled security cameras in Saif’s home before killing him. 

Ceccaldi said Saif had been warned by those close to him in recent days that there was a problem with his security. 

Saif had lived in the city of Zintan for a decade, since his release from prison after being pardoned in 2017. He had been locked up since he was captured during the Arab Spring protests in Libya in 2011, which ultimately saw his father killed. 

He was, during his father’s reign, considered to be the next in line to rule.

Saif posited himself as a reformist and even led negotiations that led to Libya’s ultimate abandonment of its nuclear programme.

Saif received a PhD from the London School of Economics. 

He was defiant when speaking to Reuters in 2011, as the Libyan uprising against his father began. 

"We fight here in Libya, we die here in Libya,” he said. 

Saif ended up with an International Criminal Court warrant for his arrest in 2011 after his torture of protesters and dissidents. 

But in 2015, it was agreed that Libya would try him for war crimes. He was convicted in absentia.

There has been no government statement yet on his death.

Libya is divided into two parts, with an internationally recognised government in Tripoli, headed by Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, and a government in the east led by Khalifa Haftar.

Dbeibah became prime minister in 2021 with a mandate to usher in democratic elections in  Libya, but the process has stalled with his government forging ties with militias and competing with Haftar for access to oil revenue.