The son of Libya’s former leader Muammar Gadaffi, Seif al-Islam, was shot dead in the northern African country, it was learnt yesterday.
Seif al-Islam was killed in the town Zintan, 85 miles south-west of the capital, Tripoli, according to Libya’s chief prosecutor’s office.
The office said in a statement that an initial investigation found that Gadaffi was shot dead, but did not provide further details about the circumstances of his killing.
Khaled al-Zaidi, a lawyer for Gadaffi, confirmed his death on social media, without providing details.
Abdullah Othman Abdurrahim, who represented Gadaffi in the United Nations-brokered political dialogue which aimed to resolve Libya’s long-running conflict, also announced the death on social media.
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Gadaffi’s political team later released a statement saying that “four masked men” stormed his house and killed him in a “cowardly and treacherous assassination.”
The statement said that he clashed with the assailants, who closed the CCTV cameras at the house “in a desperate attempt to conceal traces of their heinous crimes.”
Muammar Gadaffi was toppled in a NATO-organised uprising in 2011 after more than 40 years in power. He was killed in October 2011 amid the ensuing fighting that would turn into a civil war.
The country has since plunged into chaos and divided between rival armed groups and militias.
Seif al-Islam was captured by fighters in Zintan late in 2011 while attempting to flee to neighbouring Niger. The fighters released him in June 2017 after one of Libya’s rival governments granted him amnesty. He had since lived in Zintan.
In November 2021, Gadaffi announced his candidacy in the country’s presidential election but he was disqualified by the country’s High National Elections Committee.
The election was never held over disputes between rival administrations and armed groups that have ruled Libya since the removal of Muammar Gadaffi.