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Conflicting Reports Emerge about Al-Saadi Gaddafi’s Presence in Turkey

Al-Saadi al-Gaddafi. (AFP file photo)
Al-Saadi al-Gaddafi. (AFP file photo)
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Conflicting Reports Emerge about Al-Saadi Gaddafi’s Presence in Turkey

Al-Saadi al-Gaddafi. (AFP file photo)
Al-Saadi al-Gaddafi. (AFP file photo)

Conflicting reports continued to emerge over the presence of Al-Saadi al-Gaddafi, the son of Libya’s late leader Moammar al-Gaddafi, in Turkey’s Istanbul.

Sources had confirmed that the had flown to the city onboard a private jet soon after his release from prison last week.

Several Libyan news agencies and AFP had quoted sources at the Turkish Foreign Ministry as saying that it had no information about the presence of Al-Saadi in Istanbul.

But Moussa Ibrahim, a former Libyan information minister who still serves as a Gaddafi family spokesman, told Turkey’s Haberler that Al-Saadi was in Turkey with his family.

Egypt and other countries said they would welcome Al-Saadi, but he ultimately chose Turkey, he added.

During the 2011 uprising, Al-Saadi fled for Niger but was extradited to Libya in 2014 and had been imprisoned in Tripoli until last week.

He was accused of crimes committed against protesters in 2011 and of killing Libyan football coach Bashir al-Rayani in 2005. He was acquitted in that case in 2018.

Al-Saadi, 47, is Moammar’s third son. He briefly played as a professional footballer in Italy.

He was freed along with several other former regime officials, including Moammar’s former cabinet and intelligence chief, Ahmad Ramadan, last week.

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Israeli Ultra-Orthodox Party Leaves Government over Conscription Bill

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, surrounded by ministers from the government attends a session of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem, Monday, July 14, 2025. (AP)
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, surrounded by ministers from the government attends a session of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem, Monday, July 14, 2025. (AP)
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Israeli Ultra-Orthodox Party Leaves Government over Conscription Bill

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, surrounded by ministers from the government attends a session of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem, Monday, July 14, 2025. (AP)
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, surrounded by ministers from the government attends a session of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem, Monday, July 14, 2025. (AP)

One of Israel's ultra-Orthodox parties, United Torah Judaism, said it was quitting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ruling coalition due to a long-running dispute over failure to draft a bill to exempt yeshiva students from military service.

Six of the remaining seven members of UTJ, which is comprised of the Degel Hatorah and Agudat Yisrael factions, wrote letters of resignation. Yitzhak Goldknopf, chairman of UTJ, had resigned a month ago.

That would leave Netanyahu with a razor thin majority of 61 seats in the 120 seat Knesset, or parliament.

It was not clear whether Shas, another ultra-Orthodox party, would follow suit.

Degel Hatorah said in a statement that after conferring with its head rabbis, "and following repeated violations by the government to its commitments to ensure the status of holy yeshiva students who diligently engage in their studies ... (its MKs) have announced their resignation from the coalition and the government."

Ultra-Orthodox parties have argued that a bill to exempt yeshiva students was a key promise in their agreement to join the coalition in late 2022.

A spokesperson for Goldknopf confirmed that in all, seven UTJ Knesset members are leaving the government.

Ultra-Orthodox lawmakers have long threatened to leave the coalition over the conscription bill.

Some religious parties in Netanyahu's coalition are seeking exemptions for ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary students from military service that is mandatory in Israel, while other lawmakers want to scrap any such exemptions altogether.

The ultra-Orthodox have long been exempt from military service, which applies to most other young Israelis, but last year the Supreme Court ordered the defense ministry to end that practice and start conscripting seminary students.

Netanyahu had been pushing hard to resolve a deadlock in his coalition over a new military conscription bill, which has led to the present crisis.

The exemption, in place for decades and which over the years has spared an increasingly large number of people, has become a heated topic in Israel with the military still embroiled in a war in Gaza.