Jens Asbjørn Bøgen
He was wanted by the ICC for crimes against humanity.
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, has died at the age of 53, according to his family.
His adviser, Abdullah Othman Abdurrahim, announced the death in a Facebook post, and the information was later confirmed to the Libya al-Ahrar television channel by his cousin, Hamid Gaddafi.
“Dr. Saif al-Islam has been martyred,” Hamid Gaddafi told the channel.
Claims of killing
Abdullah Othman Abdurrahim said Saif al-Islam was killed when armed attackers targeted his home.
“He was assassinated by four armed men,” he said, adding that they disabled security systems before the attack. Libya al-Ahrar reported that the assailants then carried out the killing inside the residence.
No independent confirmation of the circumstances was immediately available.
A contested legacy
Once seen as a possible successor to his father, Saif al-Islam initially promoted himself as a reform-minded figure.
That image collapsed during the 2011 revolt, when he threatened violence against protesters. Arrested later that year, he was held in Zenten and sentenced to death in 2015 after a summary trial, before receiving an amnesty.
Wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, his location had remained unclear. In 2021, he registered to run in Libya’s cancelled presidential election.
The fall of Muammar Gadaffi
Muammar Gadaffi was a Libyan military officer, who ruled Libya from 1969 until he was overthrown by rebel forces in 2011.
He claimed power through a military coup, removed British and American military bases a year after taking power and since introduced a form of Islamic Socialism, according to Encyclopedia Britannica.
His government supported several seperatist and revolutionary movements in other countries, most notably The Black Panthers in the U.S. and the IRA in Northern Ireland.
Sources: Facebook posts from Abdullah Othman Abdurrahim, 20 Minutes, Encyclopedia Britannica
