Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the most well-known son of Libya’s former ruler Muammar Gaddafi, has been killed in Libya, according to officials and local media reports.
Saif al-Islam was captured in 2011 while trying to flee the country and imprisoned in Zintan. He was released in 2017 under a general amnesty and had been living there ever since.
News of his death was confirmed on Tuesday by his lawyer, Khaled al-Zaidi, and his political adviser, Abdulla Othman, who shared separate announcements on Facebook. Neither provided detailed information at the time.
However, Libyan outlet Fawasel Media quoted Othman as saying that Saif al-Islam, 53, was shot dead by armed men inside his residence in Zintan, a town about 136 kilometres southwest of Tripoli.
A later statement from Gaddafi’s political team described the killing as a “cowardly and treacherous assassination,” claiming that four masked attackers broke into his home.
According to the statement, Saif al-Islam resisted the assailants before being killed, while the attackers allegedly disabled security cameras in an attempt to hide evidence of the crime.
Although Saif al-Islam never held an official government role, he was widely regarded as his father’s heir and played a central role in Libyan politics from 2000 until the 2011 uprising that led to Muammar Gaddafi’s death.
