Hannibal Gaddafi Freed After Nearly a Decade in Lebanese Detention
Hannibal Gaddafi, the youngest son of the deposed Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, has been released by Lebanon after nearly 10 years in detention without trial.
The Lebanese authorities seized Mr Gaddafi, now 49, in 2015, accusing him of concealing information about the fate of a Lebanese Shia cleric who disappeared in Libya in 1978, when he was just two. Human rights groups had denounced the accusations.
His lawyer told the AFP news agency his $900,000 (£682,938) bail had been paid. Laurent Bayon said, It's the end of a nightmare for him that lasted 10 years. In October, a judge had set a bail of $11 million against Gaddafi's release, but this was reduced last week after an appeal by his defense team.
Mr Bayon noted that his client would be leaving Lebanon for a confidential destination, stating, If Gaddafi was able to be arbitrarily detained in Lebanon for 10 years, it's because the justice system was not independent. In 2015, Mr Gaddafi was briefly abducted by an armed group in Lebanon before being freed but was later detained again by Lebanese authorities.
After his father was overthrown by rebels and killed in 2011, he fled to Syria and then lived under house arrest in Oman with his wife Aline Skaf. Before the fall of his father’s regime, Mr Gaddafi was known for his lavish lifestyle.
The disappearance of Shia cleric Musa al-Sadr in Libya has been a longstanding issue between Libya and Lebanon, with Hannibal Gaddafi being just two years old at the time and holding no senior position in Libya as an adult.
