After six years in captivity, Saif al-Islam Qadhafi — the second eldest son and one-time heir-apparent of the former Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Qadhafi — was finally freed by his Zintani captors on 9 June. He was seized by a force from Zintan in November 2011 as he tried to flee the country through Libya’s south-western deserts following the toppling of his father’s regime. Saif al-Islam was taken by his captors to Zintan where he had been held in an undisclosed location ever since.

While Saif al-Islam has been released and has clearly left Zintan, his whereabouts are still unknown. The lack of information about his whereabouts is hardly surprising given that there are many Libyans who would like to see him dead. The Islamist camp and the more hard line revolutionaries are certainly not going to tolerate such a prominent member of the former regime being a free man if they can help it.

The General Prosecution office in Tripoli notably condemned Saif al-Islam’s release, describing it as an ‘obstruction of the court’ that had sentenced him in absentia in July 2015. It also declared that the clemency law issued by the House could only be enforced in compliance with ‘legal requirements and procedures agreed by the unquestioned judiciary’.

There are also many in eastern Libya who would not welcome Saif al-Islam’s release, given the former regime’s highly antagonistic relationship to Cyrenaica. It is therefore clear that there is much disquiet among some camps about him being freed.

More interestingly, however, there were also objections to Saif al-Islam’s release in Zintan. Both the Zintan Military Council and the Zintan Municipal Council condemned the move, and distanced themselves from any part in it. They issued a statement accusing the Zintan elders of having ‘colluded’ to release Saif al-Islam which they described as ‘a betrayal of the blood of the martyrs.’  … [article continues] …

This is an excerpt from an article in this month’s Libya Focus publication.