Saif al-Islam Gaddafi was buried

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi

was buried today in Bani Walid, a Gaddafi stronghold. Saif al-Islam Gaddafi (25 June 1972 – 3 February 2026) was the second son of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and for many years his most prominent political heir. He was widely regarded as the regime's de facto number two from roughly 2000 to 2011, despite never holding a formal state office. He acted as a key intermediary with Western governments, especially in the negotiations through which Libya abandoned its weapons of mass destruction program in 2002–2003, helping pave the way for lifting sanctions. Educated partly in the UK (including studies at the London School of Economics), he was promoted abroad as a modernizing, pro‑reform face of the regime, even as core structures of authoritarian rule remained intact. Saif al‑Islam played a central role in talks that led Libya to renounce its nuclear and other WMD programs, which significantly improved relations with Western states. He hosted peace talks between the Government of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in Tripoli; these contributed to a 2001 agreement later incorporated into the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro in 2014. He floated various political ideas, including the “Isratine” one‑state proposal for the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, framed as a single secular state. During the 2011 Libyan uprising, he publicly backed his father’s hard‑line response, warned of “rivers of blood,” and said the regime would fight “until the last man, the last woman, the last bullet.” In June 2011, the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for him on charges of crimes against humanity (murder and persecution) linked to the violent repression of protests. He was captured later in 2011 near Zintan while trying to flee after his father's fall and was held there by local brigades who refused to hand him over to Tripoli or the ICC. In 2015, a Tripoli court sentenced him to death in absentia for war‑crimes‑related charges stemming from the crackdown on protesters, a verdict not recognized by his Zintani captors. Saif al‑Islam was released in 2017 in an amnesty declared by authorities in the east, after years of detention in Zintan. From exile or semi‑clandestine locations inside Libya, he periodically issued statements, criticized both NATO and the ICC, and argued that the 2011 intervention had destroyed the Libyan state. He tried to re‑enter politics, including moves to stand in the repeatedly delayed presidential elections, positioning himself as a figure who could restore order and negotiate among rival camps. In 2022, through his lawyer, he circulated written proposals for resolving Libya's crisis: urgent inclusive elections under a neutral authority, or alternatively, a collective withdrawal of all current figures (including himself) from the electoral process to allow “new faces” to emerge. On February 3, 2026, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi was killed at age 53 in or near Zintan, southwest of Tripoli, according to Libyan officials and prosecutorial statements. Reports indicate he was shot at his residence by masked gunmen who disabled security cameras; his office described it as a “cowardly and treacherous assassination,” while family accounts differed on the exact location (with his sister claiming he died near the Algerian border). Libyan prosecutors have opened an investigation and dispatched forensic teams, but as of early February 2026, no clear, publicly confirmed motive or perpetrator has been identified. In recent years, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi posed a threat, particularly to certain power groups in Libya—and that is precisely why they feared him and his potential return to politics. In recent years, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi was a threat, especially to certain power groups in Libya—and that is precisely why they feared him and his potential return to politics.

Reports indicate he was shot at his residence by masked gunmen who disabled security cameras; his office described it as a “cowardly and treacherous assassination,” while family accounts differed on the exact location (with his sister claiming he died near the Algerian border). Libyan prosecutors have opened an investigation and dispatched forensic teams, but as of early February 2026, no clear, publicly confirmed motive or perpetrator has been identified. Specifically, the following groups/individuals were particularly afraid of him or saw him as a threat: First, there is Khalifa Haftar (and his family/the LNA's eastern power bloc). Haftar was considered one of the main players who feared Saif as a potentially strong competitor in elections. Some reports and posts explicitly stated: "Haftar was afraid of the competition." Then there is the government in Tripoli (Government of National Unity/GNU under Abdul Hamid Dbeibah and allies). His announced candidacy in 2021 and his continued popularity among segments of the population (especially among people fed up with the chaos since 2011) made him an existential threat to the status quo powers in the west. Many militias and post-2011 elites (especially in western Libya, Zintan, Misrata, etc.) also held this view. These groups benefited from the overthrow of the Gaddafi family in 2011 and feared that Saif al-Islam, with his name, symbolic value, and potential Gaddafi loyalists (the "Greens" / Popular Front), could win elections or at least act as a kingmaker. Not to be forgotten are parts of the West (especially the USA, France, and Great Britain). Pro-Gaddafi circles and some analyses claim that Western powers feared a resurgent, unified Libya under someone like Saif – because that would have made it more difficult for them to exert influence and further fragment the country. So, the people who feared Saif al-Islam the most were precisely those who have been in power or seized positions of power since 2011 – especially Haftar, Dbeibah, and the western Libyan militias/elites. They feared less his military power (which was very limited after 2011) than his political symbolic value and the possibility that he could garner a large number of votes in fair elections. Interestingly, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi was shot dead in Zintan on February 3, 2026 – just a few days before the current date. Many observers see this as proof that someone took the fear of his return seriously and acted preventively. Who exactly was behind it remains officially unclear to this day. Tens of thousands of people paid their respects in endless columns. His brother Saadi called it the "funeral of the century."

Fifteen years after the destruction of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya by NATO bombing, most Libyans still mourn Gaddafi's socialism. Fifteen years after his father's assassination, Libyans paid their last respects to their fallen son, who died fighting to reunify the country devastated by NATO. Does this look like the funeral of a “hated son of a dictator”? You won't see these numbers at the funerals of NATO leaders. The Libyan people loved Muammar Gaddafi, they loved Saif, and they yearn for the golden age of their country, when housing, medicine, electricity, education, and food were generously subsidized. NATO destroyed Libya because Gaddafi dared to be self-sufficient and refuse to be enslaved by the imperialist West. Saif was murdered because he wanted to return Libya to this mission! https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp37g4xgkxdo https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/2/3/saif-al-islam-gaddafi-son-of-former-leader-killed-in-libya https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saif_al-Islam_Gaddafi https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/feb/04/saif-al-islam-gaddafi-son-of-ex-libyan-leader-killed-say-officials https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/2/3/who-was-libyas-saif-al-islam-gaddafi https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2026/2/10/why-did-saif-al-islam-gaddafi-have-to-die https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Saif_al-Islam_Gaddafi https://www.coalitionfortheicc.org/cases/saif-alislam-gaddafi https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saif_al-Islam_al-Gaddafi