MOSCOW, February 4. /TASS/. Libya’s Prosecutor General’s Office confirmed the death of the most prominent son of late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, Saif al-Islam, from gunshot wounds, according to an early investigation.
TASS has collected key details about what is known so far.
Circumstances behind the assassination
- On February 3, Libya al-Ahrar television reported the death of Gaddafi’s son.
- According to the TV channel, the assassination occurred in the western Libyan city of Zintan.
- The death was confirmed by Saif al-Islam Gaddafi's lawyer, Khaled al-Zaidi, Libya’s news website Al-Marsad reported.
- According to sources of Al Hadath television, close to the Gaddafi family, Saif al-Islam was killed in the garden of his residence.
- All four attackers fled the scene.
- Meanwhile, the 444th Brigade, commanded by the Defense Ministry in Libya’s Tripoli-based Government of National Unity, claimed that Gaddafi’s son was killed in an armed confrontation. Fighters from the brigade have denied any involvement in the attack.
Probe
- Libya’s Prosecutor General’s Office confirmed the death of Saif al-Islam from gunshot wounds, according to an early investigation.
- Law enforcement officers are working to identify those responsible for the murder.
- The whereabouts of Saif al-Islam’s body are not known, the Al Wasat media outlet reported.
- The hospital in the city of Zintan, where Saif al-Islam is believed to have been assassinated, denied earlier reports of receiving his body.
- Nor does a clinic in the neighboring city of Ar Rajban have such information, Al Wasat said.
- No provocative or unlawful actions against the son of Libya’s former leader prior to his killing in Zintan were reported, a spokesman for the mayor’s office said.
- Saif al-Islam will not be buried until the crime is fully solved, his political spokesman Abdullah Othman said.
- According to Othman, the gunmen "disabled the surveillance cameras and the guards" on the premises before the attack.
Reaction
- Mohamed Abou Agila, a key member of Saif al-Islam’s political team, denounced the assassination as a crime against the entire nation and a method of eliminating a political rival.
- He refused to clarify exactly who he blames for the attack, calling for patience ahead of the results of the ongoing probe.
- The assassination of Gaddafi’s son will continue to affect the situation in the country over the next few decades, Libyan politician Suleiman al-Bayoudi opined.
About Saif al-Islam Gaddafi
- Saif al-Islam is the second child of Muammar Gaddafi and the eldest son.
- In June 2011, an arrest warrant against him was issued for "crimes against humanity."
- Saif al-Islam was arrested by an armed group from Zintan, but in 2015 it refused to transfer him to a court in Tripoli that sentenced the politician to death after a hasty investigation.
- He was released by the militia in June 2017.
- In 2021, Saif al-Islam announced plans to run for presidency.
- They were supposed to take place the same year but have not been held to date.
- While protests against his candidacy were held in a number of regions, there were also those who placed hopes on him as a politician who could reunite the country.
- The election commission eventually disqualified him.
- In 2023, Abdoulaye Bathily, the United Nations Secretary-General’s special representative for Libya and the UN Libya envoy, confirmed that Gaddafi’s eldest son would be able to file his candidacy for the presidential elections if he wished to do so.