Seif al‑Islam Kadhafi, the son of Libya’s late leader Moamer Kadhafi (also spelled Gaddafi), was shot dead on Tuesday by a group of four gunmen who stormed his home in Zintan, an adviser and relatives said.
“Four armed men stormed the residence of Seif al‑Islam Kadhafi after disabling surveillance cameras, then executed him,” Abdullah Othman Abdurrahim told Al‑Ahrar TV.
His French lawyer, Marcel Ceccaldi, told AFP the killing was carried out by a “four‑man commando” and that “for now, we don’t know” who was behind the attack. Ceccaldi said a close associate had warned about problems with Kadhafi’s security about 10 days earlier. He was 53.
Seif al‑Islam had reemerged as a political figure after the 2011 uprising that toppled his father. Arrested later in 2011, he faced an ICC arrest warrant and was sentenced to death in a Tripoli court in 2015, a sentence later subject to amnesty. He announced a presidential bid in 2021 before elections were postponed indefinitely.
Relatives and supporters portrayed him as a martyr. “He has fallen as a martyr,” his cousin Hamid Kadhafi told Al‑Ahrar TV. Moamer Kadhafi’s former spokesman, Moussa Ibrahim, posted on X that Kadhafi was “killed treacherously” and described him as a proponent of a “united, sovereign Libya.”
Libya experts warned the killing could reshape the country’s precarious political landscape. Emadeddin Badi said Kadhafi’s death “is likely to cast him as a martyr for a significant segment of the population, while also shifting electoral dynamics by removing a major obstacle to presidential elections.”
The slaying comes as Libya remains split between a UN‑backed government in Tripoli and an eastern administration aligned with military commander Khalifa Haftar. Authorities gave no immediate explanation or claim of responsibility; investigations were ongoing.
