Saadi Gaddafi’s Family Plans Int’l Lawsuit to Release him

Saadi Gaddafi in his prison outfit. Getty images
Saadi Gaddafi in his prison outfit. Getty images
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Saadi Gaddafi’s Family Plans Int’l Lawsuit to Release him

Saadi Gaddafi in his prison outfit. Getty images
Saadi Gaddafi in his prison outfit. Getty images

The family of slain former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has warned that it would file lawsuits locally and internationally to press for the release of his third son Saadi, accusing the parties detaining him of torture.

In April last year, Tripoli's court of appeals acquitted Saadi Gaddafi of murdering Bashir al-Rayani, a former footballer and coach of Tripoli's Al-Ittihad football club, in 2005.

Since his extradition from Niger in March 2014, Saadi has been held in al-Hadaba prison in the Libyan capital Tripoli.

His family said in a statement carried by the pro-Gaddafi Jana news agency that it would “file the lawsuits against all those involved in Saadi’s incarceration and his torture despite being acquitted by the court.”

It claimed that Saadi’s captors denied him the appropriate medical care, putting his life in danger.

The family urged the international community and human rights officials to assume their legal and moral responsibilities against those who have “lost their conscience” and continued to "torture" Saadi Gaddafi despite his acquittal.

Al-Hadaba is among the most notorious prisons in Libya where thousands of prisoners, including former regime figures, are held.

A source close to the Gaddafi family told Asharq Al-Awsat that several lawyers have been tasked with filing the lawsuits against a “long list of personalities who will be accused of involvement in torturing Saadi and denying him freedom.”

The family complained last year that it had lost contact with Saadi, saying “all we know is that he has been taken hostage to a prison that is run by militias in the capital.”

But the Libyan prosecutor’s office snapped back, claiming Saadi remains in the Tripoli prison and "hasn’t left it.”



RSF Shelling On Camp Kills 8 in Sudan's Darfur, Say Rescuers

A view of a street in the city of Omdurman damaged in the year-long civil war in Sudan, April 7, 2024. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig
A view of a street in the city of Omdurman damaged in the year-long civil war in Sudan, April 7, 2024. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig
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RSF Shelling On Camp Kills 8 in Sudan's Darfur, Say Rescuers

A view of a street in the city of Omdurman damaged in the year-long civil war in Sudan, April 7, 2024. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig
A view of a street in the city of Omdurman damaged in the year-long civil war in Sudan, April 7, 2024. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig

Rapid Support Forces (RSF) shelled a displacement camp in Sudan's Darfur region on Thursday, killing eight civilians and injuring others, a local rescue group said.

The bombardment hit Abu Shouk camp, which hosts tens of thousands of displaced people on the outskirts of El Fasher, the besieged capital of North Darfur.

El-Fasher remains the last major stronghold in Sudan's western Darfur region not under the control of the RSF, who have been at war with the regular army since April 2023, AFP reported.

"The Abu Shouk camp witnessed heavy artillery bombardment by the RSF... killing eight people," the camp's Emergency Response Room said in a statement.

In recent weeks, El-Fasher, which has been under RSF siege since last year, has been locked in intense fighting between warring sides in a region also gripped by famine.

Thursday's offensive comes just days after a series of attacks by the RSF targeted another battleground region of Sudan.

More than 450 people, including 35 children, were killed in several villages of North Kordofan, southwest of the capital Khartoum, according to a statement released this week by the UN's children agency.

"No child should ever experience such horrors," said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. "Violence against children is unconscionable and must end now."

On Sunday, the RSF claimed to have killed more than 470 army personnel near the town of El-Obeid, also in North Kordofan, in a statement posted to its Telegram channel.

Independent verification of casualties in Sudan remains difficult due to restricted access to its conflict zones.

Now in its third year, the conflict has killed tens of thousands and forced millions to flee, creating what the United Nations describes as the world's largest displacement crisis.

In December last year, famine was officially declared in three displacement camps near El-Fasher, namely Zamzam, Abu Shouk and Al-Salam, according to the UN.

Since the Sudanese army regained control of the capital Khartoum in March, the RSF has shifted its operations westward, focusing on Darfur and Kordofan in a bid to consolidate territorial gains.

In April, RSF fighters seized the Zamzam displacement camp, located near Abu Shouk.

The assault forced nearly 400,000 people to flee, according to UN figures, effectively emptying one of the country's largest camps for the displaced.

Sudanese analyst Mohaned el-Nour told AFP the RSF aims to redefine its role in the conflict.

"Their goal is no longer to be seen as a militia, but as an alternative government in western Sudan, undermining the legitimacy of the authorities in Port Sudan."

He added that the recent surge in violence in North Kordofan was likely intended to divert the army's attention from El Fasher, where the military is trying "at all costs" to maintain.