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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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4 Dead, Including 2 Children, in Latest Migrant Shipwreck Off Greek Island

Greek Coast Guard vessels take part in a search and rescue operation following a shipwreck, where migrants drown off the island of Samos, Greece, November 25, 2024. REUTERS/Sofianos Drapaniotis
Greek Coast Guard vessels take part in a search and rescue operation following a shipwreck, where migrants drown off the island of Samos, Greece, November 25, 2024. REUTERS/Sofianos Drapaniotis
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4 Dead, Including 2 Children, in Latest Migrant Shipwreck Off Greek Island

Greek Coast Guard vessels take part in a search and rescue operation following a shipwreck, where migrants drown off the island of Samos, Greece, November 25, 2024. REUTERS/Sofianos Drapaniotis
Greek Coast Guard vessels take part in a search and rescue operation following a shipwreck, where migrants drown off the island of Samos, Greece, November 25, 2024. REUTERS/Sofianos Drapaniotis

Four people, including two children, have died after a boat carrying migrants ran aground on a rocky shoreline on the eastern Greek island of Samos, officials said Thursday.
Sixteen people were rescued, but it remained unclear how many were aboard the boat. The Greek coast guard launched a search-and-rescue operation involving patrol vessels, lifeboats, and land teams to locate any potential missing passengers, The Associated Press reported.
A Greek government official said he expected the risk facing migrants to rise over the winter months, and blamed conflicts in the Middle East for a swell in illegal crossings this year.
The incident comes after eight migrants – six children and two women – died in a shipwreck off the island on Monday.
Samos and other Greek islands in the eastern Aegean Sea are key transit points for migrants crossing from Türkiye to the European Union, with arrivals in recent months that Greek authorities say is linked to ongoing wars in the Middle East and parts of Africa.
“The conditions are certainly not favorable,” Migration Minister Nikos Panagiotopoulos told private Skai television Thursday.
“They do not tend towards reducing the flow of migrants, but rather increasing them – with all the geopolitical turmoil, especially in the Middle East, with ongoing wars and other issues,” he said.
Panagiotopoulos said he expected the risk of tragedies in the eastern Aegean to increase in the coming weeks as weather conditions worsen, and added that Greece will renew efforts to seek European Union funding for border wall construction under the next Polish presidency of the EU, which starts on Jan. 1.
Separately Thursday, police announced the arrest of nine people accused of operating a smuggling ring that allegedly provided migrants with false and illegally used documents to travel to western European cities.
The group, active since July, provided migrants with safe housing, clothing, and travel documents before escorting them to Athens International Airport, police said. Fees for those services ranged from 3,000 to 5,000 euros ($3,150-5,250).