Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi, the most prominent son of the former Libyan leader is in good health and is following the political situation in Libya from his base inside the country, a Gaddafi family lawyer said on Tuesday.
Khaled al-Zaidi said he was in personal contact with Saif, but refused to say where in Libya Saif was, or whether he had ever left Zintan, the western town where he was detained after the 2011 revolt in which his father was toppled and killed.
“He’s working on politics from his base in Libya, with the tribes, with the cities, with the decision makers,” Zaidi told reporters in Tunis. “He’s in a good health … in top condition. His medical and psychological condition is good.”
Saif was seen as a successor to his father in the years before 2011 when Ghaddafi fell to the rebels and remains a key figure for the Gaddafi loyalists. Seeking to rebuild their influence, they present Saif as someone who can help reconcile the country’s rival factions, though he is sought for alleged war crimes both in his home country and by the International Criminal Court.
A Court in Libya’s capital, Tripoli, had in 2015, sentenced Saif to death in absentia for war crimes, including killing protesters during the revolution.
The International Criminal Court, based in the Netherlands, is also seeking his arrest and said in June it was trying to verify the reports of Saif’s release.
