Saif al-Islam Gaddafi

Saif al-Islam Muammar al-Gaddafi (25 June 1972 – 3 February 2026) was a Libyan political figure. He was the second son of the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and his second wife Safia Farkash. He was a part of his father's inner circle, performing public relations and diplomatic roles on his behalf.

He publicly turned down his father's offer of the country's second-highest post and held no official government position. According to United States Department of State officials in Tripoli, during his father's reign, he was the second most widely recognized person in Libya, being at times the de facto prime minister, and was mentioned as a possible successor, though he rejected this. However, in spite of his earlier claim of not wanting to be a successor, Gaddafi was acknowledged by 2015 to have been his father's heir apparent, with anybody wanting to do business in Libya having to go through him first. An arrest warrant was issued for him on 27 June 2011 by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for charges of crimes against humanity against the Libyan people, for killing and persecuting civilians, under Articles 7(1)(a) and 7(1)(h) of the Rome Statute. He denied the charges.

Gaddafi was captured in southern Libya by the Zintan militia on 19 November 2011, after the end of the Libyan Civil War, and flown by plane to Zintan. He was sentenced to death on 28 July 2015 by a court in Tripoli for crimes during the civil war, in a widely criticized trial conducted in absentia. He remained in the custody of the de facto independent authorities of Zintan. On 10 June 2017, he was released from prison in Zintan, according to a statement from the Abu Bakr al-Siddiq Battalion. Later the same month, his full amnesty was declared by the Tobruk-based government led by Khalifa Haftar. As of December 2019, Gaddafi remained wanted under his ICC arrest warrant for crimes against humanity. On 14 November, he attempted to register as a candidate in the presidential election originally scheduled to take place in December 2021, but was rejected. This decision was overturned less than a month later, which reinstated his candidacy, although the election was indefinitely postponed several weeks later.

On 3 February 2026, Gaddafi was assassinated at his home by four unknown gunmen who fled the scene.