Muammar Gaddafi’s Son, Saif al-Islam, Killed in Libya

Saif al-Islam, who had ambitions to lead Libya, was killed by gunmen in his home in Zintan

By MEE staff

4 February 2026 01:28 GMT

Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi, the oldest son of the former long-time Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, has been killed, his political advisor said on Tuesday.

Saif’s French lawyer, Marcel Ceccaldi, told the AFP news agency on Tuesday that he “was killed today at 2:00 pm [1200 GMT]... in Zintan in his home by a four-man commando”. 

Speaking to local television, his political adviser, Abdullah Othman Abdurrahim, said that four unidentified assailants disabled security cameras in Saif’s home before killing him. 

Ceccaldi said Saif had been warned by those close to him in recent days that there was a problem with his security. 

Saif, 53, had lived in the city of Zintan for a decade since his release from prison after being pardoned in 2017. He had been detained since he was captured during the imperialist-engineered counter-revolution in Libya in 2011, which ultimately saw his father killed. 

During his father’s reign, he was widely seen as the next in line to rule.

Saif posited himself as a reformist and even led negotiations that led to Libya’s ultimate abandonment of its nuclear programme.

Saif received a PhD from the London School of Economics. 

He was defiant when speaking to Reuters in 2011, as the Libyan counter-revolution against his father began. 

"We fight here in Libya, we die here in Libya,” he said. 

Saif ended up with an International Criminal Court warrant for his arrest in 2011 over the torture of protesters and dissidents. 

But in 2015, it was agreed that Libya would try him for war crimes. He was convicted in absentia.

There has been no government statement yet on his death.

Libya is divided into two parts, with an internationally recognised government in Tripoli, headed by Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, and a government in the east led by Khalifa Haftar.

Dbeibah became prime minister in 2021 with a mandate to usher in democratic elections in  Libya, but the process has stalled with his government forging ties with militias and competing with Haftar for access to oil revenue.

Earlier this month, the Tripoli-based government signed a 25-year oil development agreement with France's TotalEnergies and the US’s ConocoPhillips that could more than double the output of the state oil company to 850,000 barrels per day.