Seif al-Islam Kadhafi, the son of Libya’s late longtime ruler, has been killed by gunmen, his adviser told the media on Tuesday, with relatives confirming his death.
Kadhafi is also written as Gaddafi.
Abdullah Othman Abdurrahim told Al-Ahrar TV channel that Seif al-Islam was killed in his house by a group of four unidentified men.
“Four armed men stormed the residence of Seif al-Islam Kadhafi after disabling surveillance cameras, then executed him,” Abdurrahim was reported as saying.
Further confirmation stated that the son of Libya’s late longtime ruler, was killed on Tuesday by a “four-man commando” in his home in western Libya’s Zintan, his French lawyer, Marcel Ceccaldi, told AFP.
“For now, we don’t know” who was behind the killing, Ceccaldi said, adding that he was told by one of Seif al-Islam’s close associates about ten days ago “that there were problems with his security”.
Seif al-Islam, 53, had been seen as his father’s successor.
In 2021, he announced he would run for president, but those elections were indefinitely postponed.
Media outlets said he died in Zintan, in northwestern Libya, although his whereabouts had long been unknown.
Hamid Kadhafi, his cousin, told Al-Ahrar TV he had “fallen as a martyr”.
While he held no official position in the North African country under his father’s rule, he had been described as Libya’s de facto prime minister, cultivating an image of moderation and reform prior to the 2011 Arab Spring revolt.
But that reputation soon collapsed when he promised “rivers of blood” in the face of the uprisings.
He was arrested in November 2011 in southern Libya following a warrant by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
A Tripoli court later sentenced him to death in 2015 after a speedy trial but was granted amnesty.
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.
Moamer Kadhafi’s last spokesman, Moussa Ibrahim, also posted on the social network: “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.”
Libya has struggled to recover from chaos that erupted after a NATO-backed uprising in 2011 overthrew longtime ruler Moamer Kadhafi.
Libya remains divided between a UN-backed government based in Tripoli and an eastern administration backed by Haftar.
AFP
