Seif al-Islam al-Qaddafi, the son of the deceased Muammar al-Qaddafi, was reportedly killed by “four masked men,” as stated by his associates.
The 53-year-old met his death in the town of Zintan, situated southwest of the nation’s capital, Tripoli, according to , which referenced Libya’s chief prosecutor’s office. The office indicated he was shot dead but offered no further details, per the AP. Moreover, the outlet mentioned that Khaled al-Zaidi, a legal representative for Seif al-Islam, confirmed his passing on Facebook.
The “masked men” are alleged to have stormed Seif al-Islam’s residence and killed him in a “cowardly and ,” as reported by the AP, citing Seif al-Islam’s team. The team further asserted in its statement that the attackers disabled the CCTV cameras at the house “in a desperate bid to cover up traces of their heinous crimes,” per the AP.
Born in 1972, Seif al-Islam was the second child of the long-serving dictator al-Qaddafi. He received his education at the London School of Economics, where he pursued a Ph.D.
Seif al-Islam, viewed by many as Libya’s representative to the West, has been characterized as the most influential figure in the country, even though he held no official post. He oversaw discussions on Libya’s abandonment of weapons of mass destruction and negotiated compensation for the families of those killed in the 1988 Pan Am Flight 103 bombing, .
Muammar al-Qaddafi, who had governed Libya since 1969, was overthrown and killed during a NATO-supported popular uprising in 2011. The uprising sparked a civil war, and the nation has since been split among competing armed groups and militias, the AP noted. In late 2011, Seif al-Islam was captured by fighters while attempting to flee to Niger and was later freed in June 2017 when one of Libya’s rival administrations granted him amnesty, as per the AP.
In November 2021, Seif al-Islam declared his candidacy for Libya’s presidential election but was ultimately disqualified by the country’s High National Elections Committee, the AP reported.