CAIRO (AP) — Libyan authorities on Sunday released one of Muammar Gaddafi’s sons after more than seven years of detention in the capital of Tripoli following his extradition from neighboring Niger, the country’s interim leader said.
Prime Minister-designate Abdul Hamid Dbeibah said in a tweet early Monday that al-Saadi Gaddafi had been released in compliance with a previous court order.
Mohamed Hamouda, a spokesman for the transitional government, said the son walked free from Tripoli’s al-Hadaba prison, where many Gaddafi regime officials are being held pending trial, mostly in connection to the crackdown on the 2011 uprising that toppled the longtime ruler and led to his killing. Hamouda did not elaborate on the circumstances of the son’s release.
Local media reported al-Saadi Gaddafi was released after he was acquitted on charges dating back to the uprising against his father’s rule. Following his release, he traveled to Turkey, according to the al-Marsad news website.
“We cannot move forward without achieving reconciliation,” Dbeibah said in the tweet announcing the release. His government has been given the task of leading the war-wrecked country to elections before the end of this year.
At the time of the 2011 revolt, al-Saadi Gaddafi headed a special forces brigade that was involved in the crackdown on protesters and rebels.
He was smuggled across the desert to Niger in 2011 just as his father’s regime was crumbling. He was extradited in March 2014 after he, as well as colleagues who accompanied him, “failed to respect the conditions of his stay in Niger,” the West African nation’s government said at the time.
The dictator had eight children, most of whom played significant roles in his regime. His son Muatassim was killed at the same time Gaddafi was captured and slain. Two other sons, Seif al-Arab and Khamis, were killed earlier in the uprising.
Seif al-Islam, the one-time heir apparent to his father, has been in Libya since his release from detention in 2017. Another son, Hannibal, is reportedly detained in Lebanon.
The rest of the children are still at large having sought asylum in neighboring Algeria along with Gaddafi’s wife and al-Saadi’s mother, Safiya. The mother, a sister and two brothers were granted asylum in Oman in 2012 and moved there from Algeria.
During his father’s rule, al-Saadi Gaddafi was known for his lavish lifestyle and he treated Libya’s soccer league as his personal fiefdom. He played for several Libyan teams — and for an Italian team until he failed a drug test. At various times, he headed Libya’s soccer federation and its national team.