Saif al-Islam Gaddafi was shot in his own garden, a family source has claimed
Saif Gaddafi, son of the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, in London, July 24, 2002. © Sean Dempsey - PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images
[RT] 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 sentenced Saif al-Islam to death for his role in
the crackdown on protests during the 2011 unrest that led to the
downfall of his father’s government. The International Criminal Court
separately charged him with crimes against humanity. Saif al-Islam was
released in 2017 as part of a general amnesty.
In
2021, he registered as a candidate for the presidential election
scheduled for December, but the vote ultimately collapsed amid 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 remains divided
between rival governments in the west and east. Presidential and
parliamentary elections have repeatedly been postponed as political
tensions persist.