Inside Africa – Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam freed

The captors of Saif al-Islam, son and one-time heir apparent of Libya’s late dictator Muammar Gaddafi, say they have released him after more than five years in detention.

A statement by the captors, the Abu Bakr al-Siddiq Battalion, said Saif al-Islam was released on Friday, but gave no details on his whereabouts.

Battalion officials at Zintan, a town south of the capital Tripoli, confirmed his release.

Again, they declined to give further details.

Gaddafi’s son was captured by the battalion’s fighters late in 2011, the year when a popular uprising toppled Gaddafi after more than 40 years in power. The dictator was later killed.

The uprising later became a civil war in which Saif al-Islam led Gaddafi’s loyalist forces against the rebels.

Saif al-Islam, whose name means sword of Islam, was arrested by an armed group and held in their northern hilltop stronghold of Zintan southwest of Tripoli.

Since then he has been in a legal tug-of-war between the International Criminal Court and the Libyan authorities.

In June 2011, ICC judges issued arrest warrants for Saif, his father and for spy master Abdullah al-Senussi, for crimes against humanity relating to the bloody repression of the uprising.

Born on June 25, 1972, Saif al-Islam is the second of Gaddafi’s eight children, the eldest son of his second wife Safiya.

Widely seen as Gaddafi’s heir-apparent, he was often described as the Libyan leader’s ‘playboy’ son.

He received a doctorate from the London School of Economics, but held no official post. He carved out influence as a loyal emissary of Gaddafi’s regime and architect of reform.

He was anxious to normalise ties with the West and in 2007 launched the country’s first private television station and two newspapers.

Source: dailymail