Libyan officials said on Wednesday that Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, a son of the late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, was shot dead at his home in the western town of Zintan.
Authorities and members of his political office said the 53-year-old was killed when four masked gunmen stormed his residence. His lawyer, Khaled al-Zaidi, described the incident as an assassination, and the political office called the attack “treacherous and cowardly.” Media reports citing sources close to the family said he was shot in the garden.
Seif al-Islam had been seen as preparing to re-emerge in Libya’s deeply divided political scene, where rival governments and armed groups remain influential. His potential return to public life was viewed as a possible challenge to the Tripoli-based administration of Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh and his allies.
Before his father’s fall in 2011, Seif al-Islam was associated with limited political and economic reform efforts, though during the 2011 uprising he publicly supported the regime’s violent crackdown on protesters.
Speculation about responsibility for the killing has centered on militias aligned with the Tripoli government, but a militia connected to the ministry has denied involvement. Gadhafi’s political office has urged Libya’s judiciary, the United Nations, human rights organizations and the international community to conduct an independent and transparent investigation at both local and international levels.
Edited by: Elizabeth Schumacher