Khaberni - Saadi Gaddafi announced that the family does not currently accuse anyone in the death of his late brother Saif al-Islam Gaddafi. He confirmed in a post on the «X» platform today (Saturday) his trust in the judiciary, calling for «waiting for the results of the investigations into the incident». Saadi Gaddafi considered the funeral of his brother as a «national referendum» on his popularity.
Release of Saadi
The Libyan authorities released Saadi as part of a judicial decision issued years ago to release him, after he had been in prison since his handover in March 2014 by Niger, where he had fled following the fall of his father's regime in 2011, and was pursued for his involvement in the «sanguinary suppression of the uprising».
Saadi is being tried in court for the murder of Bashir al-Rayani, the former coach of a local football club in Tripoli in 2005. Since his release, he only appears through limited writings on the «X» platform.
The political advisor to Gaddafi's son, Abdullah Othman, said that the acquittal or conviction of any party in the assassination crime of his client «will be determined by the investigations». He confirmed that «the decisive factor in the innocence or guilt is the investigations». He refused to preempt the investigations and to accuse any party, describing it as «imprecise».
Four unidentified gunmen assassinated Saif al-Islam Gaddafi on Tuesday evening at his home in the town of Zintan southwest of Tripoli. His body was buried on Friday. Reports mentioned that Saif al-Islam was killed by several bullets, one of which was in the head.
Arrest warrant and death sentence
It should be mentioned that after the opposition took control of the capital Tripoli in 2011, Saif al-Islam attempted to flee to the neighboring Niger disguised in Bedouin attire, but the Abu Bakr al-Siddiq battalion, an armed group, captured him on a desert road, and transported him by air to the city of Zintan in the west of the country, about a month after the opposition chased his father and executed him in the field by gunshot.
Saif al-Islam spent the following six years detained in Zintan. In 2015, a court in Tripoli sentenced him to death by firing squad for committing war crimes. Notably, he was also wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague for charges of committing war crimes. The court issued an arrest warrant for him for «murder and persecution».
In 2017, Saif al-Islam was released under an amnesty law, and he remained out of sight in Zintan for years fearing assassination. Before reappearing in 2021 in the city of Sabha in southern Libya dressed in a Libyan robe and turban.
