Libya is expected to enter a protracted period of instability and chaos following the assassination of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the most prominent son of the former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. As confirmed by the Libyan Attorney General's Office, Saif al-Islam's death resulted from gunshot wounds sustained while he was in the garden of his home in the city of Zintan. "It was determined that the victim was shot to death," the Prosecutor General's Office announced, stating that law enforcement authorities are working to identify the suspects involved in the murder.
Death trap by four perpetrators
According to initial reports, the 53-year-old Saif was murdered yesterday, Tuesday, February 3, in the western Libyan city of Zintan, located approximately 136 kilometres southwest of Tripoli. The late politician's lawyer confirmed that he was assassinated. According to sources from the Al Hadath television network close to the Gaddafi family, Saif al-Islam was mortally wounded by fire received while in a garden adjacent to his residence. The death trap involved four masked men who stormed the house. According to the statement, Saif al-Islam clashed with the perpetrators, who disabled the home's security cameras in a desperate attempt to hide the traces of their heinous crimes. Following the attack, all four fled the scene.
Treacherous attack
Khaled al-Zaidi, Saif al-Islam's lawyer, maintained that his client lost his life as a result of a "treacherous attack." For its part, Saif al-Islam's political group pledged that "the murder will not go unpunished." "We demand that the Libyan justice system and the international community take responsibility," they said in a statement cited by Al Hadath. Khaled al-Mishri, former head of the Tripoli-based High State Council—an internationally recognised government body—called for an "urgent and transparent investigation" into the murder via a social media post.
Investigation first, burial later
As announced by Abdullah Othman, a member of Saif al-Islam's political team, the investigation into the murder will be completed before the burial takes place. "The funeral will not take place unless the necessary procedures at the crime scene are first completed and the murder investigation is finished," reported the news portal Laam. Othman added that the body would be moved to the mortuary of a private hospital in Zintan. Earlier, the Al Wasat portal reported that public hospitals in Zintan and the nearby town of Ar Rajban denied receiving the body.
No increased measures taken
The Zintan mayor's office stated that no provocations against Gaddafi's son had occurred in the city prior to his assassination. A spokesperson for the local authorities reported that the situation in the city remains normal, with no threats to public safety or increased security measures either before or after the murder, within the city or its outskirts.
Many wanted him dead
Libyan politician Suleiman Al-Bayoudi stated that the assassination will continue to affect the Libyan political environment for decades. "The assassination of Saif al-Islam creates a precedent that will affect the relations between various groups of Libyan society for many years," he said, according to the Egyptian news portal Shorouk News. The politician expressed doubts that any political force would claim responsibility for the attack, although "many wanted to see him dead."
An attack on all of Libya
On his part, another member of Saif al-Islam's political team, Aqila Delhoum, described the murder as an attack against the entire country. "What happened is a crime against our history and against the whole of Libya. The assassination of Saif al-Islam is nothing more than a cheap way to eliminate a political opponent," he said, according to Egypt's Al Ghad. According to him, Saif al-Islam struck fear into "forces that do not want Libya's independence." In his view, the murder was "the first, but not the last, political assassination of a Libyan politician by his rivals," without naming potential culprits.
Never held official office
Gaddafi never held an official office in Libya, yet he was considered his father's "number two" from 2000 until 2011, when Muammar Gaddafi was killed by Libyan opposition forces, ending his years of rule. Saif al-Islam Gaddafi was arrested and imprisoned in Zintan in 2011 after attempting to flee Libya following the opposition's capture of Tripoli. He was released in 2017 under a general amnesty and had lived in Zintan ever since. He was the second son of Muammar Gaddafi, had studied in the West, and presented a more progressive face of his father's oppressive regime, playing a central role in efforts to restore Libya's relations with the West since the early 2000s.
The role in the revolution and the 'rats'
He led the talks for Libya to abandon weapons of mass destruction and negotiated compensation for the families of the victims of the 1988 Pan Am Flight 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland. He studied at the London School of Economics, spoke fluent English, and projected himself as a reformer, calling for a constitution and respect for human rights. His doctoral thesis concerned the role of civil society in reforming global governance. However, when the uprising against his father's long rule broke out in 2011, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi immediately chose family and tribal loyalty, assuming the role of the architect of the violent suppression of dissidents, whom he called "rats." Speaking to Reuters during the 2011 popular uprising, he stated: "We will fight here in Libya, we will die here in Libya." He warned that "rivers of blood" would flow and that the government would fight to the last man, woman, and bullet. "The whole of Libya will be destroyed. It will take us 40 years to agree on how the country will be governed, because today everyone will want to be president or emir and everyone will want to rule," he had said then.
Political deadlock
His words are confirmed by political developments, given that there are currently two different governments in Libya: the Government of National Unity based in Tripoli and the Government of National Stability based in eastern Libya. The two governments cannot agree on a roadmap for the formation of a single interim government that would lead the country to elections. Currently, Libya is divided between the West, where Tripoli and the surrounding areas are dominated by forces supporting the Government of National Unity, and the East, where the Government of National Stability and Haftar's army hold real power.
The accusations
Gaddafi was accused of torture and extreme violence against opponents of his father's regime and, by February 2011, had been placed on the UN sanctions list and banned from travelling. At the same time, he was wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged crimes against humanity committed in 2011. After the rebels captured Tripoli, he tried to escape to neighbouring Niger, disguised as a Bedouin, but was arrested by the Abu Bakr Sadik Brigade militia on a desert road and flown to Zintan. Following long negotiations with the ICC, Libyan authorities were granted the jurisdiction to try him for alleged war crimes. In 2015, a Tripoli court sentenced him to death in absentia. After his release in 2017, he spent years in hiding in Zintan to avoid assassination.
Candidate for president
In November 2021, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi announced his candidacy for the country's presidential elections, in a controversial move that drew strong reactions from anti-Gaddafi political forces in western and eastern Libya. As the electoral process that year stalled without agreement on the rules, his candidacy became one of the key points of contention. He was disqualified due to his 2015 conviction, and when he attempted to appeal, gunmen blocked the court. These disputes contributed to the collapse of the electoral process and Libya's return to political deadlock.
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