Rumours surrounding the killing of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi sparked immediate agitation on Libyan social media on Tuesday night.
A few hours later, in the early morning, Libya’s attorney general confirmed that the son of former long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi and designated heir had been “shot dead”.
Around the same time, the first images of the corpse of Saif al-Islam began circulating online. The lifeless body appeared to be lying in the back of a pickup truck, reportedly in a desert area.
According to his political advisers, Saif al-Islam was attacked by a four-man commando unit who “broke into his home, disabled the security cameras and killed him during a direct confrontation”.
At this stage, the political consequences of Saif al-Islam’s killing remain difficult to assess.
Rumours surrounding the killing of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi sparked immediate agitation on Libyan social media on Tuesday night.
A few hours later, in the early morning, Libya’s attorney general confirmed that the son of former long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi and designated heir had been “shot dead”.
Around the same time, the first images of the corpse of Saif al-Islam began circulating online. The lifeless body appeared to be lying in the back of a pickup truck, reportedly in a desert area.
According to his political advisers, Saif al-Islam was attacked by a four-man commando unit who “broke into his home, disabled the security cameras and killed him during a direct confrontation”.
At this stage, the political consequences of Saif al-Islam’s killing remain difficult to assess.
During the 2011 uprising that led to a civil war, Saif al-Islam was the object of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for the crimes against humanity of murder and persecution, allegedly committed against protesters and dissidents.
Shortly after his father’s killing in October 2011, Saif al-Islam was arrested by powerful armed groups from the Zintan region and held in the mountains of the north-west of the country, some 100 kilometres south of Tripoli.
Although observers have often suggested that he had disappeared or that his whereabouts were unknown, it was in this same region that Saif al-Islam was killed on 3 February, suggesting that he may never have truly left the area.
The attorney general’s office announced it had opened an investigation into the case, while the United Nations Support Mission in Libya said it “strongly condemns this targeted killing”.