Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the prominent son of Libya’s late dictator Muammar Gaddafi, has been reportedly killed in Libya. The 53-year-old was reportedly shot dead at his home in the town of Zintan, according to officials and local media reports.
His lawyer, Khaled al-Zaidi, and political adviser, Abdulla Othman, announced the news via Facebook, though they did not provide further details about the circumstances of his death.
Libyan news outlet Fawasel Media cited Othman as saying that armed men stormed Gaddafi’s residence and shot him, with some reports suggesting he was involved in a confrontation with the assailants who allegedly closed security cameras to conceal their actions.
The Gaddafi family’s political team described the killing as a “cowardly and treacherous assassination” carried out by “four masked men.” The incident has sparked calls for an urgent investigation into the circumstances surrounding his death.
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, born in June 1972 in Tripoli, was considered to be his father’s heir apparent and was a significant political figure, especially between 2000 and 2011.
After the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, Saif was captured and imprisoned in Zintan but was released in 2017 under a general pardon. Since then, he had maintained a relatively low profile in Libyan politics.
