Hannibal Gaddafi, son of the former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, may be released from prison. Hannibal has been detained in Lebanon since December 2015. He is accused of withholding information about the 1978 disappearance of Imam Musa al-Sadr, Sheikh Hassan Yaqoub, and journalist Abbas Badr al-Din. Hannibal maintains his innocence.
According to Hannibal Gaddafi’s French lawyer, Laurent Bayon, the family of journalist Abbas Badr al-Din’s son, Zaheer Badr al-Din, has supported Hannibal’s release and signed a notice to this effect on October 1st. This request has been sent to the Lebanese Prosecutor General, who must give their opinion within 24 hours.
Hannibal has been imprisoned in Beirut for the past 10 years, and has only been permitted one visit during that time. His lawyer has criticized the inhumane conditions of his detention and stated that Hannibal was brought to Lebanon after being abducted from Syria.
Recently, Hannibal’s health deteriorated, and he was taken to the hospital where he was diagnosed with severe pneumonia and liver inflammation. This marked the first time in 10 years that he spent a night outside of prison.
In June of this year, his lawyer filed a new request for his release. While the families of Imam Sadr and Sheikh Yaqoub opposed his release, the support from the Badr al-Din family is considered a major success in this long-standing case. According to his lawyer, there isn’t sufficient evidence in the case and no judge has met with Hannibal since 2017. Currently, he is battling physical and mental health issues, but he holds onto hope for justice from the Lebanese court and the new government.
Hannibal Gaddafi is the fifth and youngest son of Muammar Gaddafi, born in 1975. He has been held at the headquarters of the Internal Security Forces in Beirut since 2015. His connection to the 1978 disappearance of Lebanese Shia Imam Musa al-Sadr in Tripoli, Libya is the reason for his detention. At that time, Hannibal was only three years old.
After his father’s assassination, Hannibal fled to Syria. Imam Musa al-Sadr was one of the founders of the Shia political party called the Amal Movement, and Lebanon has held Muammar Gaddafi responsible for his disappearance. After the fall of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime and his assassination in 2011, Hannibal, his wife, and some siblings fled to Algeria and later settled in Syria as political refugees.
In 2015, according to his lawyers, Hannibal was lured to the Syria-Lebanon border under the pretense of a newspaper interview and abducted by a group that took him to Lebanon. His lawyers claim Hassan Yaqoub, who was a Hezbollah MP at the time, was behind the abduction. Yaqoub’s father and journalist Abbas Badr al-Din also went to Libya with al-Sadr and disappeared.
During the abduction, a video of Hannibal was shown on the Lebanese Al Jadeed TV channel on December 11, 2015, showing him with facial injuries. He stated that his health was good and urged anyone with information about al-Sadr’s disappearance to come forward.
Reports indicate that he was captured by people associated with the Amal Movement, but the next day he was released from Baalbek and taken to Beirut by Lebanese authorities. On December 17, Hassan Yaqoub was detained on suspicion of involvement in the kidnapping.
Hannibal has consistently maintained his innocence. In 2022, he stated through Saudi TV Al Hadath that how could a two-year-old know where the Imam was. His lawyer stated that Hannibal is an innocent man and that his only crime is being Gaddafi’s son, and that he has done nothing wrong.
In 1978, Lebanese Shia cleric Musa al-Sadr suddenly disappeared. Musa has considerable influence in Lebanon. In 1975, he united Muslims against Christians. Libya has always maintained that in 1978, he, along with his companions, left Tripoli, Libya, for Rome. However, many of his supporters believe that Gaddafi had him killed for money.
