Seif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of Libya’s late dictator, killed, officers say | EUROtoday

Seif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son and one-time inheritor obvious of Libya’s late dictator Muammar Gaddafi, was killed within the northern African nation, Libyan officers stated Tuesday.

The 53-year-old was killed within the city Zintan, 136km(85 miles) southwest of the capital, Tripoli, based on two Libyan safety officers in western Libya. The officers spoke on situation of anonymity as a result of they weren’t authorised to transient the media.

Khaled al-Zaidi, a lawyer for Seif al-Islam, confirmed his loss of life on Facebook, with out offering particulars.

Abdullah Othman Abdurrahim, who represented Gaddafi within the UN-brokered political dialogue which aimed to resolve Libya’s long-running battle, additionally introduced his loss of life on Facebook.

Abdurrahim, who leads his political group, didn’t present additional particulars, however Libyan information outlet Fawasel Media cited him as saying that armed males killed Seif al-Islam in his dwelling. The outlet reported that prosecutors had been investigating the killing.

Seif al-Islam’s political group later launched a press release, saying that “four masked men” stormed his home and killed him in a “cowardly and treacherous assassination.” The assertion stated that he clashed with the assailants, who closed the CCTV cameras on the home “in a desperate attempt to conceal traces of their heinous crimes.”

Born in June 1972 in Tripoli, Seif al-Islam was the second-born son of the longtime dictator. He studied for a PhD on the London School of Economics and was seen because the reformist face of the Gaddafi regime.

MuammarGaddafi was toppled in a NATO-backed widespread rebellion in 2011 after greater than 40 years in energy. He was killed in October 2011 amid the following preventing that might flip right into a civil warfare. The nation has since plunged into chaos and divided between rival armed teams and militias.

Seif al-Islam was captured by fighters in Zintan late in 2011 whereas trying to flee to neighboring Niger. The fighters launched him in June 2017 after one in every of Libya’s rival governments granted him amnesty. He had since lived in Zintan.

A Libyan courtroom convicted him of inciting violence and murdering protesters and sentenced him to loss of life in absentia in 2015. He was additionally wished by the International Criminal Court on fees of crimes in opposition to humanity associated to the 2011 rebellion.

In November 2021, Seif al-Islam introduced his candidacy within the nation’s presidential election in a controversial transfer that was met with outcry from anti-Gaddafi political forces in western and jap Libya.

The nation’s High National Elections Committee disqualified him, however the election wasn’t held over disputes between rival administrations and armed teams which have dominated Libya because the bloody ouster of Muammar Gaddafi.