Saif al-Islam, son of Muammar Gaddafi, the former Libyan dictator, has died, with no clear cause of death disclosed.
Foreign news agencies reported that Saif al-Islam, son of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, former Libyan dictator once regarded as his father's political heir, was killed at the age of 53, though the exact cause of death has not been revealed.
His political team leader announced the news on Tuesday, 3 Feb 2026 GMT+7, while his sister told Libyan television that he died near the Libya-Algeria border but did not confirm the cause of death.
The cause of Saif's death remains unclear due to conflicting reports appearing in various Libyan media outlets.
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi was long regarded as the most influential and formidable figure in Libya after his father, who ruled the country from 1969 until he was overthrown and killed during the Arab Spring revolution in 2011.
Born in 1972, Saif played a key role in restoring Libya's relations with Western nations from 2000 until the fall of the Gaddafi regime.
After his father's downfall, Saif—accused of brutally suppressing anti-government protesters—was detained for nearly six years by opposition armed groups in the city of Zintan.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) sought to prosecute him for crimes against humanity related to the alleged crackdown on protesters in 2011, while Libyan courts sentenced him in absentia to death in 2015 on the same charges.
Saif influenced policy and led several high-level negotiations despite holding no official government position, including talks that persuaded his father to abandon Libya’s nuclear weapons program.
Those agreements led to the lifting of international sanctions on Libya, causing some to view Saif as a reformer and a more acceptable face of a changing Libya.
Saif consistently denied any intention to inherit power from his father, stating that leadership "is not a farm to be inherited." However, in 2011 he announced his candidacy for president, but elections never took place due to the popular uprising.
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Source:bbc