Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of Libya’s former dictator, Muammar al-Gaddafi, has been shot dead.
The death of the 53-year-old has been confirmed by the head of his political team on Tuesday.
His lawyer reported to the AFP that a “four-man commando” unit carried out an assassination at the younger Gaddafi’s Zintan home. However, Gaddafi’s sister told Libyan TV that he had died near the country’s border with Algeria.
Nobody has revealed who was behind the attack.
Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi ruled Libya from 1969 to 2011, when he met a particularly violent death in an uprising.
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi he played an essential role in Libya’s rapprochement with the West from 2000, but also in the brutal repression of anti-government protests, until the collapse of his gather’s regime. He also convinced his father to abandon his nuclear incentives.
In 2015, he was given a death sentence in absentia for his role in the crackdown by a court in UN-backed Tripoli. He was jailed by a rival militia in the Zintan for six years, before being released by an amnesty law.
The younger Gaddafi never had an official position in government, and has publicly said that the position of ruler is “not a farm to inherit”, despite having expressed intentions to run for president in 2021.
Libya continues to be split between two governments.
