Libya’s Ousted Leader Muammar Gaddafi’s Eldest Son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi Killed

Libya’s ousted leader Muammar Gaddafi’s eldest son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, has been killed in the town of Zintan, about 136 km (85 miles) southwest of Tripoli, in what his political team described as a targeted assassination. His lawyer Khaled al-Zaidi and political adviser Abdulla Othman announced the 53-year-old’s death in separate Facebook posts on Tuesday.

Libyan outlet Fawasel Media cited Othman as saying armed men killed Gaddafi inside his home. A subsequent statement from Gaddafi’s political team said “four masked men” stormed the house and carried out a “cowardly and treacherous assassination,” adding that the attackers disabled security cameras “in a desperate attempt to conceal traces of their heinous crimes.”

Khaled al-Mishri, former head of the Tripoli-based High State Council, called for an “urgent and transparent investigation.”

From Heir Apparent to Pariah

Born in June 1972 in Tripoli, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi was long viewed as his father’s number two from roughly 2000 until Muammar Gaddafi’s overthrow and killing in 2011.

Western-educated and fluent in English, he presented a reformist image in the early 2000s, leading talks on Libya’s abandonment of weapons of mass destruction and negotiating compensation linked to the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

Educated at the London School of Economics, he promoted constitutional reform and human rights, with academic work focused on civil society and global governance.

That profile collapsed during the 2011 uprising. Saif al-Islam aligned decisively with his father, helping shape the violent response to protesters. In remarks to Reuters during the revolt, he said: “We fight here in Libya, we die here in Libya.” He warned that “All of Libya will be destroyed,” predicting decades of instability.

By February 2011, he was placed on a United Nations sanctions list and banned from travel. The International Criminal Court later sought him for alleged crimes against humanity.

Detention, Release, and Political Deadlock

After opposition forces seized Tripoli in 2011, Saif al-Islam attempted to flee towards Niger disguised as a Bedouin tribesman. He was captured by the Abu Bakr Sadik Brigade militia and transferred to Zintan.

In 2015, a Tripoli court sentenced him to death in absentia. He was released in 2017 under a general pardon and lived quietly in Zintan for years, avoiding public appearances amid persistent security threats.

His surprise return in November 2021, when he declared his candidacy for Libya’s stalled presidential election, reignited divisions. He was disqualified because of the 2015 conviction, and efforts to appeal were blocked by armed groups surrounding the court. The dispute became one of several flashpoints that derailed the electoral process and pushed Libya back into political paralysis.

A Family Still Entangled in Regional Politics

The assassination comes as members of the Gaddafi family continue to surface across the region. On Nov. 11, 2025, Lebanon released Hannibal Gaddafi, Muammar Gaddafi’s youngest son, after nearly 10 years in custody.

Saif al-Islam’s death now further reshapes the legacy of a family once central to Libyan power. While he never held formal office, his trajectory - reformist interlocutor, wartime enforcer, detainee, would-be presidential contender - mirrored Libya’s own fractured path since 2011.

His killing underscores the enduring reach of armed networks and the unresolved legacy of the civil war, even more than 14 years after the fall of his father’s regime that was swept away by an upheaval that left Libya fractured, empowered rival militias, and saddled the country with competing governments, persistent foreign influence, and stalled elections.