Reports have emerged that Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of Libya’s late leader Muammar Gaddafi, has been assassinated.
An Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent in Libya, Ahmed Khalifa, reported on Tuesday that Saif al-Islam was shot dead in his residence in the western city of Zintan, where he had been based for over a decade.
Abdullah Othman Abdurrahim told Al-Ahrar TV that four unidentified men stormed Gaddafi’s home, disabled surveillance cameras, and executed him.
Further confirmation came from Saif al-Islam’s French lawyer, Marcel Ceccaldi, who told AFP that the former Gaddafi heir was killed by a “four-man commando” on Tuesday. “For now, we don’t know” who was behind the killing, Ceccaldi said, noting that a close associate had warned of security concerns about ten days ago.
Once widely regarded as the political heir to his father, Saif al-Islam was considered the second most powerful figure in Libya before the 2011 uprising that led to Muammar Gaddafi’s death. Following the regime’s collapse, he was captured by fighters in Zintan and remained there amid legal battles, international warrants, and political uncertainty.
In 2021, he announced his intention to run for president, but Libya’s elections were indefinitely postponed. His cousin, Hamid Kadhafi, described him as having “fallen as a martyr” to Al-Ahrar TV.
Libyan authorities have not yet issued an official statement on the assassination.