Libya opens investigation into killing of Son of late ruler Gaddafi

Libyan authorities have launched an investigation into the killing of Seif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, in the city of Zintan.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, February 4, the Libyan public prosecutor’s office said forensic experts had been deployed to Zintan, in northwestern Libya, where Seif al-Islam was shot dead. The office confirmed that investigations were ongoing to identify and apprehend those responsible for the attack.
 

“The victim died from wounds by gunfire,” the prosecutor’s office said, adding that investigators were seeking to “speak to witnesses and anyone who may be able to shed light on the incident.”

Seif al-Islam’s lawyer, Marcel Ceccaldi, told AFP that his client was killed by an unidentified “four-man commando” who allegedly stormed his residence in Zintan on Tuesday.
 

Libya has remained deeply unstable since the NATO-backed uprising in 2011 that led to the overthrow and killing of Muammar Gaddafi. The country continues to grapple with political fragmentation and insecurity.

It is currently divided between a United Nations-backed government based in Tripoli and a rival eastern administration supported by military strongman Khalifa Haftar. Neither authority has officially commented on the killing of Seif al-Islam.
 

So far, the only public reaction has come from Moussa al-Kouni, vice-president of Libya’s Presidential Council representing the Fezzan region.
 

“No to political assassinations, no to achieving demands by force, and no to violence as a language or a means of expression,” al-Kouni wrote on X.