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. 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.
Early life and career Gaddafi was born in Tripoli on 25 June 1972. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering science from Al Fateh University in Tripoli in 1994. However, another report states that he was an architect. After several countries, including France and Canada, refused to grant him a student visa, Gaddafi earned an MBA from the Imadec business school in Vienna, where he became friends with OPEC official Shukri Ghanem and Austrian far-right politician Jörg Haider. Upon his arrival in Vienna, Gaddafi was granted permission by the Mayor of Vienna and the head of Schönbrunn Zoo to keep his pet tigers at the zoo. According to Simon McDonald, Gaddafi still had a white tiger at his farm near Tripoli in the late 2000s, but the white tiger was later turned into a rug in Gaddafi's majlis.
Gaddafi's paintings made up the bulk of the international Libyan art exhibit, "The Desert is Not Silent" (2002–2005),The Desert Is Not Silent, Internet Archive record, Historical index. a show which was supported by a host of international corporations with direct ties to his father's government, among them the ABB Group, Siemens, Petro-Canada, Bombardier, and SNC-Lavalin.Commercial partners of "The Desert Is Not Silent", Internet Archive record, 29 June 2007.
In 2002, Gaddafi sued The Sunday Telegraph for libel over a 1995 article that alleged he had masterminded an international money-laundering conspiracy. The lawsuit was settled after the intervention of Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud with The Sunday Telegraph agreeing to publish an apology and pay a portion of Gaddafi's legal costs.
In 2005, Gaddafi was awarded a "Young Global Leader" title by the World Economic Forum. In January 2011, WEF founder Klaus Schwab personally invited Gaddafi to attend the annual WEF Forum in Davos.
Gaddafi was awarded a PhD degree in 2008 from the London School of Economics, where he attended amid a series of contacts between the school and the Libyan political establishment. He presented a thesis on: "The role of civil society in the democratisation of global governance institutions: from 'soft power' to collective decision-making?"Alqadhafi, Saif Al-Islam, The role of civil society in the democratisation of global governance institutions: from "soft power" to collective decision-making? , London School of Economics Library, 2008.Gaddafi son calls for democracy , BBC News, 16 September 2009. Examined by Meghnad Desai (London School of Economics) and Anthony McGrew (University of Southampton), among the LSE academics acknowledged in the thesis as directly assisting with it were Nancy Cartwright, David Held and Alex Voorhoeve (the son of former Dutch minister Joris Voorhoeve). Professor Joseph Nye of Harvard University was also thanked for having read portions of the manuscript and providing advice and direction.Desai, Meghnad (2011) LSE is paying a heavy price for Saif Gaddafi's PhD: When it comes to Saif Gaddafi and his PhD, hindsight is indeed a wonderful thing, The Guardian, Friday 4 March 2011Alqadhafi, Saif Al-Islam (2008) The role of civil society in the democratisation of global governance institutions: from "soft power" to collective decision-making? A thesis submitted to the Department of Philosophy of the London School of Economics for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, London, September 2007, and published 2008, p.4. Alongside accusations of plagiarism, allegations abound that Gaddafi's thesis was in many parts ghost-written by consultants from Monitor Group, which earned $3 million per year in fees from Muammar Gaddafi.
Speaking in Sabha on 20 August 2008, Gaddafi said that he would no longer involve himself in state affairs. He noted that he had previously "intervene[d] due to the absence of institutions","Qaddafi's son declares he's leaving politics" , Associated Press (International Herald Tribune), 22 August 2008. but said that he would no longer do so. He dismissed any potential suggestion that this decision was due to disagreement with his father, saying that they were on good terms. He also called for political reforms within the context of the Jamahiriya system and rejected the notion that he could succeed his father, saying that "this is not a farm to inherit".
Gaddafi, who was considered a reformist, had a longstanding rivalry with his hardline brother Mutassim and his influence began to wane after the lifting of international sanctions. In November 2010, Gaddafi's independent newspaper was suspended after it published an article calling for a "final assault" on his father's government. His newspaper also defended his father's former chief of protocol Nuri Mesmari, who had defected to France earlier that month. Some of his allies, including 20 reporters, were arrested.
Charity and social affairs Gaddafi was the president of the Libyan National Association for Drugs and Narcotics Control (DNAG). In 1998, he founded the official charity, the Gaddafi International Foundation for Charity Associations, which intervened in various hostage situations involving Islamic militants and the crisis of the HIV trial in Libya and the resulting European Union-Libyan rapprochement.
In 2009, both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch were allowed entry to Libya, via Gaddafi's non-profit organization in order to gather facts about the human rights situation in Libya. While AI and HRW reported that there were concerns about the "repressive atmosphere," both felt there were signs of "improvement" and HRW said that one should not "underestimate the importance of the efforts made so far" by Gaddafi in the realm of human rights in Libya.
In December 2010, Gaddafi announced that his charity foundation "will no longer be involved in promoting human rights and political change in the North African country," and that instead, it "will focus on its 'core charitable mission' of delivering aid and relief to sub-Saharan Africa."
The board meeting of the foundation was moved from Tripoli to London due to hostilities from hardliners of his father's regime.
International diplomacy
Gaddafi was instrumental in negotiations that led to Libya's abandoning a weapons of mass destruction programme in 2002–2003. He arranged several important business deals on behalf of the Libyan regime in the period of rapprochement that followed. He was viewed as a reformer, and openly criticized the regime:
HIV trial
Gaddafi played an important role in the HIV trial in Libya. At first, he rejected information that the medics were tortured. "During this time we saw Gaddafi's son on a television broadcast categorically denying that Libya still tortured suspected criminals", claimed Valya Chervianashka, one of the accused nurses in her autobiography. Later he admitted in interviews that the Bulgarian nurses, charged with conspiring to deliberately infect over 400 children with HIV in 1998, had been tortured and that the government had denied them a fair trial. His admissions were said to have badly damaged his reputation in Libya.
The torture process is confirmed and described in details in the book Notes from Hell, co-written by one of the nurses, Valya Chervianashka. Saif al-Islam Gaddafi was mentioned several times in the book. According to her:
One day, the executive director of Muammar al-Gaddafi's son's foundation, the Gaddafi International Foundation for Charity Associations (GICDF), arrived at the prison, inviting us to the director's office of the women's wing for a meeting. We were in our pyjamas, dishevelled and unprepared. We hastily put on some clothes and hurried to meet the director. A Libyan man along with Ambassador Lyudmil Spassov and Roumen Petrov waited for us outside the office. The Ambassador told us, "This is a very important person. He will help you; he is on your side." Saleh Abdel Salam, executive director of GICDF, was intimidating. We didn't realise it then, but this Libyan man would indeed help us in the future.
Isratine proposal Gaddafi introduced the Isratin proposal to permanently resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict through a secular, federalist, republican, binational one-state solution.
Philippine peace process Gaddafi served as Chairman of the Gaddafi International Foundation for Charitable Associations. In this role, he was involved in a number of humanitarian initiatives. Gaddafi's first foray into international diplomacy was serving as an intermediary between the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group and the Government of the Philippines in August 2000. Notably, he hosted peace talks between the Government of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in Tripoli.Agreement on Peace between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front dated 2 June 2001 In the resulting peace agreement concluded on 22 June 2001, Gaddafi was expressly thanked for his involvement. He was also the witness to the signing of the peace agreement. The peace agreement forms a part of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro concluded in 2014.Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro
2008 agreement with Italy Gaddafi was involved in negotiating compensation from Libya's former colonial power, Italy, and on 30 August 2008 a Friendship, Partnership and Cooperation Agreement was signed in Benghazi by his father and Italy's Prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.VOA: Italy to Pay $5 Billion to Libya in Landmark Accord, 30 August 2008 , Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Italy. However, the treaty was unilaterally suspended by Italy at the beginning of 2011, after Italy refused to consider Gaddafi government as their interlocutor.
Compensation for American terror victims