Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of Libya’s former leader Col Muammar Gaddafi, is killed

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of Libya’s former leader Col Muammar Gaddafi, has been assassinated. 

Gaddafi is believed to have been shot and k!lled Tuesday, Feb. 3, in the western Libyan city of Zintan, where he was based for the past decade. 

The de@th of the 53-year-old, who was once widely seen as his father’s heir apparent, was reported by the head of his political team on Tuesday, according to the Libyan News Agency. 

His sister told Libyan TV that he had di£d near the country’s border with Algeria. She did not disclose how he di£d. 

Khaled al-Mishri, the former head of the Tripoli-based High State Council, an internationally recognised government body, called for an “urgent and transparent investigation” into the k!lling in a social media post on Tuesday. 

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi never had an official position in Libya, but was long seen as the most influential and feared figure in the country after his father, who ruled Libya from 1969 until being ousted and k!lled during an uprising in 2011. 

Gaddafi was captured and imprisoned in Zintan in 2011 after attempting to flee the North African country following the opposition’s takeover of Tripoli. 

He was released in 2017 as part of a general pardon.