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Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of Libya’s former leader Col Muammar Gaddafi, has reportedly been shot dead, according to Libyan media reports.
The death of the 53-year-old, who was once widely viewed as his father’s heir apparent, was confirmed on Tuesday by the head of his political team, according to the Libyan News Agency.
His lawyer told the AFP news agency that a “four-man commando” unit carried out an assassination at his residence in the city of Zintan. However, the identity of the attackers and the motive behind the killing remain unclear.
In a conflicting account, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi’s sister told Libyan television that he died near Libya’s border with Algeria, adding to uncertainty surrounding the circumstances of his death.
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi was long regarded as one of the most influential and feared figures in Libya after his father, who ruled the country from 1969 until he was ousted and killed during the 2011 uprising.
Born in 1972, he played a prominent role in Libya’s rapprochement with Western countries from around 2000 until the collapse of the Gaddafi regime. Despite holding no formal government position, he was deeply involved in shaping policy and leading high-level negotiations on behalf of his father.
Following the overthrow of the Gaddafi government, Saif al-Islam was captured and held for nearly six years by a rival militia in Zintan. He was accused of playing a key role in the violent repression of anti-government protests during the 2011 uprising.
The International Criminal Court sought his arrest to face trial for crimes against humanity related to those events. In 2015, a court in Tripoli, controlled by the UN-backed government, sentenced him to death in absentia for his role in the crackdown.
However, he was released in 2017 by a militia in Tobruk, in eastern Libya, under an amnesty law.
Since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi, Libya has remained deeply fragmented, with large parts of the country controlled by armed militias and rival administrations. The nation is currently divided between two competing governments, one based in Tripoli and the other in the east.
During his father’s rule, Saif al-Islam was instrumental in negotiations that led Libya to abandon its nuclear weapons programme, paving the way for the lifting of international sanctions. These efforts earned him a reputation among some observers as a reformist figure and the acceptable face of a changing Libya.
Although he consistently denied ambitions to succeed his father, stating that power was “not a farm to inherit,” Saif al-Islam announced in 2021 that he would contest Libya’s presidential election. Those elections were later postponed indefinitely.
Authorities are yet to issue an official statement confirming his death, as investigations into the reported assassination continue.
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