Gaddafi’s son assassinated

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi was shot in his own garden, a family source has claimed

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, has been assassinated, a source close to the family confirmed to RT on Tuesday.

He was killed by four people “who quickly fled the scene after shooting him in his garden,” a family source told Al Arabiya. According to media reports, for the last several years Gaddafi had been living in hiding in Libya.

In 2015, a Libyan court issued a death sentence in absentia for Saif al-Islam, accusing him of suppressing peaceful protests during the country's 2011 revolution, which led to the downfall of his father’s government. He had also been provisionally charged by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity.

In 2021, Saif al-Islam registered as a candidate for the presidential election scheduled for December, but the vote ultimately fell apart due to a political deadlock.

Muammar Gaddafi seized power in a 1969 coup and ruled the oil-rich country until his killing in 2011 by insurgents backed by a US-led military intervention. Libya has since experienced intermittent civil war and is divided between rival governments in the west and east. Presidential and parliamentary elections have repeatedly been postponed as political tensions persist.

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