Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of ex-Libyan leader, shot dead 

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - TRIPOLI — Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of Libya's former leader Col Muammar Gaddafi, has been shot dead, his office said in a statement on Tuesday.

The 53-year-old, who was once widely seen as his father's heir apparent, was killed during ​a “direct confrontation” with four unknown gunmen who broke into his home, said the statement carried by the Libyan News Agency.

Despite holding no official position, Saif Al-Islam was once seen as the most powerful figure in the North African country after his father Muammar Gaddafi, who ruled for more than four decades.

His lawyer told the AFP news agency a "four-man commando" unit carried out an assassination at his home in the city of Zintan, though it was not clear who may have been behind the attack.

However, his sister told Libyan TV that he had died near the country's border with Algeria.

He played a key role in Libya's rapprochement with the West from 2000 until the collapse of the Gaddafi regime in 2011.

Saif al-Islam was accused of playing a key role in the brutal repression of anti-government protests and was jailed by a rival militia in the city of Zintan for almost six years.

The International Criminal Court wanted to put him on trial for crimes against humanity for his alleged role in the suppression of opposition protests in 2011.

In 2015, he was given a death sentence in absentia for his role in the crackdown by a court in Tripoli, in the west of the country, where control is in the hands of the UN-backed government.

But he was released by militia in Tobruk, in the east, under an amnesty law two years later.

Since the overthrow of Gaddafi, Libya has been split into areas controlled by various militias and is currently divided between two rival governments.

During his father's time as leader, he shaped policy and led high-profile negotiations despite having no official role in government.

He led talks on Libya abandoning its weapons of mass destruction and negotiated compensation for the families of those killed in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988.

Determined to rid Libya of its pariah status, he engaged with the West and championed himself as a reformer, calling for a constitution and respect for human rights.

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Educated at the London School of Economics and a fluent English speaker, he was once seen by many governments as the acceptable, Western-friendly face of Libya.

But when a rebellion broke out against Gaddafi’s long rule in 2011, Saif Al-Islam immediately chose family and clan loyalties over his many friendships to become an architect of a brutal crackdown on rebels, ‌whom he called ‌rats.

Speaking to Reuters at the time of the revolt, he said: “We fight here in Libya, we die here ‌in ⁠Libya.”

He warned ​that rivers ‌of blood would flow and the government would fight to the last man and woman and bullet.

“All of Libya will be destroyed. We will need 40 years to reach an agreement on how to run the country, because today, everyone will want to be president, or emir, and everybody will want to run the country,” he said, wagging his finger at the camera in a TV broadcast.

Gaddafi had always denied that he wanted to inherit power from his father, saying the reins of power were "not a farm to inherit".

However, in 2021 he announced he would run for the presidency in elections which were then postponed indefinitely.

His candidacy was controversial and opposed by many of those who had suffered at the hands of his father’s rule. Powerful armed groups that emerged from the rebel factions that rose up in 2011 rejected it outright.

As the election process ground on in late 2021 with no real agreement on the rules, Saif Al-Islam’s candidacy became one of the main points of contention.

He was disqualified because of his 2015 conviction, but when he tried to appeal the ruling, fighters blocked off the court. The ensuing arguments contributed to the collapse of the election process and Libya’s return to political stalemate.

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.” — Agencies