Son of late Libyan dictator Gaddafi said killed in his home outside Tripoli

Circumstances of Seif al-Islam Gaddafi’s death not immediately clear; father Muammar ruled country for 40 years before being killed in 2011 civil war that plunged country into chaos

Seif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son and one-time heir apparent of Libya’s late dictator Muammar Gaddafi, was killed in the northern African country, Libyan officials said Tuesday.

The 53-year-old was killed in the town of Zintan, 136 kilometers (85 miles) southwest of the capital, Tripoli, according to two Libyan security officials in western Libya. The circumstances of his death were not immediately clear.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

Khaled al-Zaidi, a lawyer for Seif al-Islam, confirmed his death on Facebook, without providing details.

Abdullah Othman Abdurrahim, who represented Gaddafi in the UN-brokered political dialogue that aimed to resolve Libya’s long-running conflict, also announced his death on Facebook.

Abdurrahim didn’t provide further details, but Libyan news outlet Fawasel Media cited him as saying that armed men killed Seif al-Islam in his home. The outlet reported that prosecutors were investigating the killing.

Hamid Gaddafi, his cousin, told Al-Ahrar TV he had “fallen as a martyr.”

His last spokesman, Moussa Ibrahim, posted on X: “They killed him treacherously. He wanted a united, sovereign Libya, safe for all its people.”

“I spoke with him two days ago. He spoke of nothing but a peaceful Libya and the safety of its people.”

Born in June 1972 in Tripoli, Seif al-Islam was the second-born son of the longtime dictator. He studied for a PhD at the London School of Economics and was seen as the reformist face of the Gaddafi regime.

Muammar Gaddafi was toppled in a NATO-backed popular 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 is divided between rival armed groups and militias.

Seif al-Islam was captured by fighters in Zintan late in 2011 while attempting to flee to neighboring Niger. Following his capture, Israeli model and actress Orly Weinerman revealed that she had a six-year romantic relationship with Seif al-Islam and appealed to former British premier Tony Blair to save his life.

The fighters eventually released him in June 2017 after one of Libya’s rival governments granted him amnesty. He had lived in Zintan.

A Libyan court convicted him of inciting violence and murdering protesters and sentenced him to death in absentia in 2015. He was also wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity related to the 2011 uprising.

In November 2021, Seif al-Islam announced his candidacy in the country’s presidential election in a controversial move that was met with outcry from anti-Gaddafi political forces in western and eastern Libya.

In an interview with The New York Times Magazine in 2021, Saif al-Islam discussed his political strategy. “I’ve been away from the Libyan people for 10 years,” he said. “You need to come back slowly, slowly. Like a striptease. You need to play with their minds a little.”

The country’s High National Elections Committee disqualified him, but the election wasn’t held over disputes between rival administrations and armed groups that have ruled Libya since the bloody ouster of Muammar Gaddafi.

Libya expert Emadeddin Badi said Seif al-Islam’s death was “likely to cast him as a martyr for a significant segment of the population, while also shifting electoral dynamics by removing a major obstacle to presidential elections.”

“His candidacy and potential success had been a central point of contention,” Badi wrote on X.