Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of former Libyan dictator, killed in attack

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Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, once seen as heir-apparent to his father, former Libyan dictator Muammer Gaddafi, has been killed in the west of the country in unclear circumstances, according to his lawyer. He was 53 years old.

“He was attacked and killed at his home in the town of Zintan by unknown assailants,” Khaled al-Zaidi told the FT.

Gaddafi had kept a low profile since 2021, when he tried to run for the Libyan presidency in UN-organised elections which were derailed by disputes over who was eligible to run.

Since then, UN efforts to unify Libya have stalled and the country remains divided with rival eastern and western administrations propped up by militias.

During the rule of his father, who was ousted in a popular uprising and killed by rebels in 2011, Gaddafi cultivated the image of a moderniser and a proponent of reforms who wanted to bring human rights to Libya.

But when Libyans rebelled against his father’s despotic rule, he brandished a machine gun and vowed to crush the “riff raff”.

Gaddafi was wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity committed during the uprising.

His 2021 attempt to run for president was the first time he had been seen in public since 2017 when he was released from captivity after being held by a militia in Zintan for six years.

In the latter years of his father’s rule, Gaddafi, who studied at the London School of Economics and once held an exhibition of his paintings in the British capital, spearheaded his country’s international rehabilitation after more than a decade during which it was isolated and under sanctions because of its role in terrorist attacks.

In 2003 he helped negotiate compensation for the victims of the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie in Scotland, which killed 270 people, for which a Libyan agent was convicted in 2001 by a Scottish court.

This led to the lifting of sanctions on the country and improved relations with western nations eager to gain access to Libya’s oil riches.

His was also a rare voice of dissent permitted against the repression of his father’s regime, and he criticised the government and called for the creation of a constitution.

While any illusions about his convictions as a reformer were firmly dispelled after his efforts to crush the 2011 uprising, he was nevertheless thought to have had a good chance of winning a presidential election by 2021.

Analysts said many Libyans had become frustrated by the political divisions and the mismanagement of their country’s economy after a decade of chaos and yearned for a past when it was stable and prosperous, despite the repression.