Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, favorite son of Rais Muammar Gaddafi, was killed in Libya in circumstances that are still completely unclear. Long considered one of the most influential political figures in Libya after 2011 but also among the most divisive in the country, despite being wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, Saif, whose full name means ‘The Sword of Islam’, 53, reportedly lost his life in the city of Zintan in clashes between opposing militias.
The announcement of his death was made by various Libyan media, including Libya al-Ahrar which cited “personalities close” to Saif “without however revealing the circumstances”. According to al Arabiya, the perpetrators of the attack were four people who seriously injured him while he was in the garden of his home and then quickly fled the scene immediately after the raid. A possible ambush as part of armed clashes between local militias and militias loyal to the former Gaddafi regime which then continued for several hours in the afternoon, in the desert area of al-Hamada and near Zintan. Confirmation of his death later came from his advisor Abdullah Othman Abdurrahim.
In the 2000s Saif al-Islam had built a profile distinct from the traditional centers of power, with a strong external projection, relationships in Western environments and a public image associated with gradual “reforms” and philanthropic initiatives, in particular through the family-linked foundation. At that stage, analysts and observers described him as a possible successor to his father, who was competing with his brother Mutassim Gaddafi, and as a more expendable interlocutor with foreign countries. On the academic side, he is associated with the London School of Economics, also for the affair of the relationship between the university and the system of donations and collaborations linked to Libya at the time, the subject of an independent investigation commissioned by the university itself.
At the outbreak of the Libyan civil war in 2011 he sided with his father, becoming together with Musa Ibrahim, official spokesperson of the government, the privileged interlocutor between the former government and the international press. As the civil war became more radical, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi acquired ever more importance as a point of reference for all-out resistance against the militias of the National Transitional Council and against NATO.
With a cheeky character and a skilled orator, the Colonel’s second son was arrested on 19 November 2011 while trying to escape to Niger, a month after his father’s death. Since his capture, the international media, but above all the Libyans themselves, have followed the trial with great interest. Detained in Zintan prison until 5 July 2016, in July 2015 he was sentenced to the death penalty by a Libyan court on charges of war crimes and having repressed protests during the 2011 revolution. Then things unexpectedly changed when on 14 November 2021 he announced his candidacy in the subsequent Libyan presidential elections, which had never been held until now. A move he made despite still being wanted by The Hague.