Hannibal Gaddafi, the youngest son of Muammar Gaddafi, has been released by Lebanon after nearly 10 years in detention without trial.
Hannibal Gaddafi, the youngest son of the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, has been released by Lebanon after spending almost 10 years in detention without trial, according to a report from the BBC. Lebanese authorities detained Gaddafi, now 49, in 2015 on accusations that he withheld information about the disappearance of Lebanese Shia cleric Musa al-Sadr, who vanished during a visit to Libya in 1978 when Gaddafi was only two years old.
Human rights groups had long criticized the allegations. His lawyer, Laurent Bayon, told AFP that Gaddafi’s $900,000 (£682,938) bail had been paid, saying: “It’s the end of a nightmare for him that lasted 10 years.” A judge initially set bail at $11 million in October, but it was reduced following an appeal by the defence team, AFP reported.
Bayon said his client would depart Lebanon for a “confidential” destination. He added, “If Gaddafi was able to be arbitrarily detained in Lebanon for 10 years, it’s because the justice system was not independent,” according to AFP.
Gaddafi was briefly abducted by an armed group in Lebanon in 2015 before being released and subsequently detained by Lebanese authorities. After the fall of his father’s regime in 2011, he fled to Syria and later lived under house arrest in Oman with his wife, Aline Skaf. Before 2011, he was widely known for a lavish lifestyle.