Saif al Islam Gaddafi, the son of Libya’s late dictator Muammar Gaddafi, has been shot dead by gunmen who broke into his home, officials have said.
The 53-year-old was killed during a “direct confrontation” with four armed men in the Libyan town of Zintan, south-west of the capital Tripoli, his office said in a statement on Tuesday.
His lawyer, Khaled al Zaidi, and separately his adviser Abdullah Othman Abdurrahim, both confirmed his death on Facebook, without providing details.
Despite holding no official position, the second son of the longtime dictator, was once seen as the most powerful figure in the oil-rich North African country after his father, who ruled for more than four decades.
Saif al Islam Gaddafi shaped policy and was involved in high-profile diplomacy, including talks on weapons of mass destruction and compensation for the families of those killed in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie in Scotland in 1988.
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 his father’s regime in 2011, he became an architect of a brutal crackdown on rebels.
After fighters took over the capital, he was captured attempting to flee to neighbouring Niger – about a month after his father was hunted down and shot dead by rebels.
In 2015, a Libyan court sentenced him to death for war crimes. He was also wanted by the International Criminal Court, accused of crimes against humanity.
He spent six years detained in the town of Zintan. It was a far cry from the charmed life he had lived during his father’s rule when he had pet tigers and mingled with high society on trips abroad. He was released by the militia in 2017 under an amnesty.
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In 2021, he attempted to run for president, but was opposed by many who had suffered at the hands of his father’s rule. He was also disqualified from the election because of his 2015 conviction.
His candidacy became a point of contention and the election process stalled amid arguments between powerful armed groups.
In an interview with The New York Times Magazine in 2021, he 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.”
Libya remains deeply divided, with rival administrations in the east and west, after the nation descended into anarchy following the fall of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime.
The former dictator was killed by opposition fighters during the uprising, which turned into a civil war. Most of his eight children had significant roles in government.