Gaddafi son Saif al-Islam freed by Libyan militia

An armed group in Libya says it has freed Saif al-Islam. The son of dead dictator Muammar Gaddafi had been in custody since November 2011.

The Abu Bakr al-Sadiq Brigade, a militia of former rebels that controls the town of Zintan in western Libya, said Islam was freed on Friday evening, “the 14th day of the month of Ramadan”, under an amnesty law promulgated by the parliament based in the east.

The north African country has rival administrations, with the authorities in the east not recognising the UN-backed government of national accord (GNA) based in the capital.

Political rivalry and fighting between militias has hampered Libya’s efforts to recover from the chaos that followed the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed Gaddafi.

Rival authorities and militias have been vying for control of the oil-rich country ever since.

“We have decided to liberate Saif al-Islam Muammar Gaddafi. He is now free and has left the city of Zintan,” a statement said.

Zintan is controlled by armed groups opposed to the GNA.

Islam is the subject of an arrest warrant for crimes against humanity allegedly committed during the eight months of the uprising in 2011. Libya’s authorities and the international criminal court (ICC) are in dispute over who has the right to judge him.

Saif al-Islam, 44, was born on 25 June 1972. His name means sword of Islam and he is the second of Gaddafi’s eight children, the eldest son of his second wife Safiya.

The fluent English speaker often appeared in the west as the public face of his father’s regime. He held no official post but had influence as a loyal emissary of the regime and architect of reform.

In July 2016 Saif al-Islam’s lawyers claimed that their client had been released under an amnesty issued by the unrecognised authorities in the east of the country.

But the GNA said the amnesty, enacted in April that year, cannot apply to persons accused of crimes against humanity.

In all three of Gaddafi’s seven sons died during the revolution. One son who survived, Saadi, is still on trial in Libya for his alleged involvement in the crackdown and killing of a former football coach.

The deposed dictator’s widow Safiya and three more of their children found refuge in Algeria in the wake of the revolution and then later in Oman.

But the shockwaves created by the ouster and grisly killing of Gaddafi by rebels in his home town of Sirte continue to ripple across the troubled country.

Late in May Tripoli was rocked by fierce clashes between forces loyal to the unity government and rival militias, with more than 50 members of the pro-GNA forces reported killed.

Relying on militia support and pitted against the rival administration in the east, the GNA has struggled to assert its authority.

( The Guardian)