These Are the Reasons Behind Releasing ‘Political Prisoners’ in Libya, Including Al-Saadi Gaddafi
Earlier this week, the Libyan authorities released Al-Saadi Gaddafi, clearing him of all charges. According to The Guardian website, the third son of the former Libya dictator Muammar Gaddafi, was freed from jail after more than 7 years spent behind the walls of prison in compliance with a previous court order.
It was not until 42 years of his unchallenged rule that Muammar Gaddafi and his family fell during the popular uprising of the Arab Spring back in 2011. The uprising left members of the Gaddafi family dead, some imprisoned, while others were exiled.
The Libyan government said in a statement on Facebook, that in implementation of the rulings of the judiciary in cooperation with the Office of the Public Prosecutor and the Deterrence Agency to Combat Terrorism and Organized Crime, Al-Saadi Muammar Gaddafi was out two years after the decision to release him.
Al-Saadi Gaddafi was prisoned in Al-Hadba prison in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, since the state of Niger handed him over to his country in March of 2014.
Nothing Innocent
Libya has gone through hardships of chaos, division, and violence since the uprising in the past 10 years. Along with Muammar Gaddafi, three of his sons also died in the events.
The 2020 ceasefire paved the way for peace talks and ended the factional fighting in Libya.
As a consequence, a transitional government was formed last March, and the coming elections are planned to take place late this year in December.
According to Reuters, senior tribal figures, and Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh played a major role in negotiating for the release of Saadi Gaddafi.
Former Interior Minister Fathi Bashagha was also involved in the negotiations, as reported by Reuters. Actually, these negotiations raise many questions.
The Libyan presidential council announced, a few hours after the release of Saadi Gaddafi, “the release of several political detainees who served their sentences or were not tried including Ahmad Ramadan al-Asebei.”
Ramadan is a former army colonel and former director of Muammar Gaddafi’s cabinet and intelligence services who was arrested back in September 2011.
According to the Africanews website the Libyan Government of National Unity stressed that “the Council directly follows the steps that the relevant authorities take towards the release of all unconvicted detainees, ensuring that the principles of justice and human rights are observed in the construction of the new Libya.”
The current government has to organize legislative and presidential elections in December. However, chances seem increasingly unlikely due to the absence of a constitutional framework.
Observers questioned the timing of the release of Saadi. “Why Now?”
Al-Estiklal posed this very important question to Zouhair Attouf, expert in political science and international affairs, so his answer was: “ It is certain that the release of Saadi Gaddafi in this critical period is not innocent, amid the election atmosphere. Because the Libyan situation is very complicated, the transitional government seeks conciliation to move forward and guarantee reliable conditions for the elections of December.”
Playboy Lifestyle
As his father’s regime crumbled in 2011, Muammar Gaddafi’s son Saadi fled to Niger but has been extradited back to Libya where he spent more than seven years in jail. Saadi, one of Gaddafi’s eight children, was known for his playboy lifestyle during his father’s dictatorship according to The Guardian website. Saadi had a past full of trouble and misconduct.
He was crazy about football, so he convinced his father to make football such an important issue in Libya. Dreaming of being such a great football player, and his love of professional soccer, Gaddafi’s son was trained at the hands of Diego Maradona paying a lot of money.
He sought to be the best player in Africa since 2001. He participated for a short time in the Italian League, but his brief career in Italian football ended after a failed drug test. He was a major contributor to the capital of his favorite Italian club, Juventus, since 2003, with a sum of one million dollars.
He was heading the Libyan Football Association, where he had been a captain for a long time. After football dreams, he turned to film productions where he invested $100 million in a film production company. He spent most of his time at night clubs in different European countries. Most of the time, he had clashes with the police, especially in Italy. He abused drugs and alcohol and held lavish and insane parties. He owns many real estate inside and outside Libya. He has contributions to car companies, racing and rallying at the global level. He is the son of a “politician,” but he has no political ambitions. Despite that, he was the former head of the country’s special forces.
Saadi was wanted for his role in curbing the 2011 protests against his father’s rule and the killing of demonstrators, like most former regime officials, according to The Scotsman.
The 2011 Uprising
In early 2011, amid a wave of popular protest in Middle East and North Africa countries, largely peaceful demonstrations against entrenched regimes led to quick transfers of power in Egypt and Tunisia.
In Libya, however, civil war and international military intervention sparked in the wake of the uprising against Gaddafi’s four-decade rule.
Demonstrations were held in Benghazi in February 2011 by protesters against the arrest of a human rights lawyer, Fethi Tarbel. Protesters demanded that political prisoners be released. Water cannons and rubber bullets were used by security forces against the crowds, leading to a number of injuries.
With the protests intensifying, the Libyan government started using lethal force against demonstrators. According to The Britannica website, "security forces and squads of mercenaries fired live ammunition into crowds of demonstrators. Demonstrators also were attacked with tanks and artillery and from the air with warplanes and helicopter gunships."
In 2011, after nearly 42 years of ruling Libya with an excessive amount of brutality, the former dictator was ousted following a subsequent popular uprising. Both he and his son Muatassim were captured and killed in October. While the younger brothers Saif al-Arab and Khamis were killed earlier in the civil war.
During the uprising, at least three other sons of Gaddafi were killed, while the rest of the children sought asylum in neighboring Algeria, “along with Gaddafi’s wife and Saadi’s mother, Safiya. The mother, a sister and two brothers were granted asylum in Oman in 2012 and moved there from Algeria” as per The Scotsman website.
After the uprising, Libya went through chaos and has been ruled for most of the past decade by rival governments backed by armed groups and foreign governments until the formation of a Government of National Unity in Libya headed by Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh.
