Libya Asks Lebanon to Release Gaddafi’s Detained Son Due to Deteriorating Health, Officials Say

Hannibal Gaddafi, son of ousted Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi, watches an elite military unit exercise in Zlitan, Libya, Sept. 25, 2011. (AP)
Hannibal Gaddafi, son of ousted Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi, watches an elite military unit exercise in Zlitan, Libya, Sept. 25, 2011. (AP)
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Libya Asks Lebanon to Release Gaddafi’s Detained Son Due to Deteriorating Health, Officials Say

Hannibal Gaddafi, son of ousted Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi, watches an elite military unit exercise in Zlitan, Libya, Sept. 25, 2011. (AP)
Hannibal Gaddafi, son of ousted Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi, watches an elite military unit exercise in Zlitan, Libya, Sept. 25, 2011. (AP)

Libya’s judicial authorities have formally asked Lebanon to release one of the late ruler Moammar Gaddafi’s sons, held without charges in Lebanon since 2015 because of his deteriorating health, officials said Monday.

The health of Hannibal Gaddafi has been deteriorating since he went on hunger strike on June 3, to protest his detention without trial. He was taken to hospital at least twice since then and has been only drinking small amounts of water.

According to two Lebanese judicial officials, Libya’s prosecutor general Al-Sediq al-Sour, sent a request earlier this month to his Lebanese counterpart, Ghassan Oueidat, regarding Hannibal Gaddafi. The officials spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

The note stated that Lebanon’s cooperation in this matter could help reveal the truth regarding the fate of a prominent Lebanese Shiite cleric, Moussa al-Sadr, who went missing in Libya in 1978.

It questioned why Gaddafi was being held and asked that he be either handed over to Libya or be allowed to return to Syria, where he had been living in exile with his Lebanese wife, Aline Skaf, and children until he was abducted and brought to Lebanon eight years ago.

The Lebanese prosecutor then referred the case to Zaher Hamadeh, the investigative judge in the missing cleric's case, who is studying the Libyan request and would respond in time.

Hannibal Gaddafi has been detained in Lebanon since 2015 after he was abducted by Lebanese militants demanding information on the whereabouts of the cleric. Lebanese police later announced it had picked up Gaddafi from the city of Baalbek in northeastern Lebanon, where he was being held. He has since been held in a Beirut jail.

The disappearance of al-Sadr in 1978 has been a long-standing sore point in Lebanon. The cleric’s family believes he may still be alive in a Libyan prison, though most Lebanese presume al-Sadr is dead. He would be 94 years old.

He was the founder of the Amal movement, Arabic for “hope,” and an acronym for the militia’s Arabic name, the Lebanese Resistance Brigades. The group later fought in Lebanon’s 1975-90 civil war. Lebanon’s powerful Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri heads the group.

Most of al-Sadr’s followers are convinced that Moammar Gaddafi ordered al-Sadr killed in a dispute over Libyan payments to Lebanese militias.

Libya has maintained that the cleric and his two traveling companions left Tripoli in 1978 on a flight to Rome and suggested he was a victim of a power struggle among Shiites.

Moammar Gaddafi was killed by opposition fighters during Libya's 2011 uprising turned civil war, ending his four-decade rule of the North African country.

Hannibal Gaddafi, who was born two years before al-Sadr disappeared, fled to Algeria after his father was toppled and Tripoli fell to opposition fighters, along with his mother and several other relatives. He later made it to Syria where he was given political asylum and stayed there until he was abducted.

Syrian authorities at the time blasted Hannibal Gaddafi’s seizure “by an armed gang” and have been demanding he be returned to Syria.



Barrack Says Hezbollah Involvement in Iran-Israel War Would Be 'Very Bad Decision'

A handout photo released by the Lebanese Presidency press office on June 19, 2025 shows Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun (R) welcoming US negotiator Thomas Barrack at the presidential palace of Baabda east of Beirut. (Photo by Lebanese Presidency / AFP)
A handout photo released by the Lebanese Presidency press office on June 19, 2025 shows Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun (R) welcoming US negotiator Thomas Barrack at the presidential palace of Baabda east of Beirut. (Photo by Lebanese Presidency / AFP)
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Barrack Says Hezbollah Involvement in Iran-Israel War Would Be 'Very Bad Decision'

A handout photo released by the Lebanese Presidency press office on June 19, 2025 shows Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun (R) welcoming US negotiator Thomas Barrack at the presidential palace of Baabda east of Beirut. (Photo by Lebanese Presidency / AFP)
A handout photo released by the Lebanese Presidency press office on June 19, 2025 shows Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun (R) welcoming US negotiator Thomas Barrack at the presidential palace of Baabda east of Beirut. (Photo by Lebanese Presidency / AFP)

The US special envoy for Syria Tom Barrack on Thursday warned Hezbollah against getting involved in the war between its main backer Iran and Israel.

"I can say on behalf of President (Donald) Trump... that would be a very, very, very bad decision," Barrack said, responding to a question on what the US position would be on any involvement by Hezbollah in the war.

Barrack met with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun at Baabda Palace and Speaker Nabih Berri in Ain el-Tineh.

Hezbollah has condemned Israel's strikes on Iran and expressed full solidarity with its leadership.

Hezbollah on Thursday expressed support for Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei following threats by Israeli leaders that he could be killed.

In a statement, Hezbollah said that “threats to assassinate (Khamenei) are foolish and reckless, and will have disastrous consequences.”

But the group has stopped short of making explicit threats to intervene.

Israel's defense minister said Thursday that Khamenei "can no longer be allowed to exist" after an Israeli hospital was hit during an Iranian missile attack.

"Khamenei openly declares that he wants Israel destroyed -- he personally gives the order to fire on hospitals. He considers the destruction of the state of Israel to be a goal," Israel Katz told journalists in Holon near Tel Aviv. "Such a man can no longer be allowed to exist."

Killing Khamenei would "end the conflict" between Israel and Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said.