Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi

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Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi ( Arabic سيف الإسلام القذافي, DMG Saif al-Islām al-Qaḏḏāfī , born June 25, 1972 in Tripoli ) is the second oldest son of the former Libyan revolutionary leader Muammar al-Gaddafi and his second wife Safaja Farkash . Translated, his name means "sword of Islam".

He has several brothers, of whom Mutassim Gaddafi († 2011) was considered to be his strongest competitor when it came to the successor to Muammar Gaddafi.

Life

Youth and education

Gaddafi obtained a bachelor's degree in engineering , possibly architecture , from Al-Fateh University in Tripoli in the fall of 1994 . In 2000 he obtained an MBA from the private school IMADEC in Vienna . During his stay in Austria he was friends with the Carinthian Governor Jörg Haider .

The doctoral degree (it was 2008 Ph.D. ) at the London School of Economics awarded (LSE), where he was enrolled from 2003 to 2008. The title of his dissertation from 2007 is: The role of civil society in the democratization of global government institutions . As a result, however, numerous accusations emerged that the dissertation was largely written by consultants employed by the Monitor Group, a company that annually collects millions from Saif's father, Muammar al-Gaddafi.

In addition to Arabic , Gaddafi speaks English , French and German .

Politician

Gaddafi was chairman of the Gaddafi International Foundation of Charitable Associations (GIFCA). It became known in 2000 in connection with the kidnapping of 22 hostages by Abu Sajaf rebels on the Philippine island of Jolo , for which the foundation is said to have paid the ransom for the release of the hostages.

After that, the Gaddafi Foundation also negotiated compensation payments for the victims of the Lockerbie attack in 1988, the attack on the French UTA flight 772 in 1989, the bomb attack on the La Belle discotheque in Berlin in 1986 and other activities that put Libya under foreign policy. The organization of aid deliveries to Afghanistan and mediation in conflicts, including in the Philippines, were also part of her duties. Gaddafi was also chairman of the Libyan organization to fight drugs ("General Meeting of the Organization to Fight Drug Abuse").

Saif played a leading role in the program implemented by the Libyan government to demobilize the Libyan Islamic Combat Group and rehabilitate its members.

In contrast to his father, he appeared in public as a moderate, diplomatic statesman. Although he did not hold an official political office, he made regular statements on foreign policy and economic issues of the Libyan state.

During the last years of his father's reign, several interviews in which he questioned his father's politics caused a stir. In the case of the HIV trial in Libya against five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor, for example, he admitted that the suspects had been tortured and politically abused. He said several times that he thought his father's political system was in need of reform.

Because of these freedoms granted to him by the regime, he has long been viewed by Western media as a possible successor to his father.

Civil war 2011 and imprisonment

As a result of the mass protests in February 2011 , Gaddafi warned in a televised address with the words "rivers full of blood will flow through all the cities of Libya" of the country's disintegration and the resulting prolonged civil war-like conditions. This statement aroused great media interest as a hook.

During the Libyan civil war in 2011, Gaddafi gained international fame because he took the place of his father Muammar al-Gaddafi and made many media appearances and regularly called on the Libyan people to resist the rebels, for example in a televised address on the evening of August 31, 2011.

On May 16, 2011, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court ( ICC ) requested an arrest warrant for Gaddafi for crimes against humanity in The Hague. In the course of the uprising, the Gaddafi regime carried out torture, murders and rape in order to intimidate the population and suppress the uprising. The warrant was issued on June 27, 2011. On September 9, 2011, he, together with his father Muammar al-Gaddafi and the head of the secret service, Abdullah al-Senussi , was put out to be wanted by Interpol .

A report of his death on October 20, 2011 was initially confirmed by state television. From circles of the Libyan Transitional Council , however, it was reported that Gaddafi was on the run to Niger . In the meantime it had been reported that he was in the hands of the Libyan Revolutionary Council as a prisoner and that his back was seriously injured by gunshot wounds. On October 23, Gaddafi reported to the Al-Arabiya television station with an audio message and announced that he would continue the resistance against the new rulers. Reuters reported on October 26, citing a representative of the Transitional Council, that Gaddafi would voluntarily surrender to the International Court of Justice in The Hague . He called for an airplane and security commitments. Other reports contradicted this representation.

On November 19, 2011, Saif al-Islam was arrested by Sintan militias near the city of Ubari in southern Libya . While European politicians called on the National Transitional Council to transfer Gaddafi to the International Criminal Court , the Libyan transitional government wanted to bring Gaddafi to justice in his home country and refused to transfer him to The Hague. Saif al-Islam had an injury to his right hand at the time of the first photo and video recordings after his arrest. According to Libya TV, the militiamen who arrested Gaddafi allegedly cut off three fingers. In a video released by the rebel fighters, however, Saif al-Islam claims that the injury came from a NATO air strike one month earlier. According to an examining doctor, Saif al-Islam had to amputate the injured fingers to prevent the spread of gangrene .

After his capture, Saif al-Islam was in the city of az-Zintan . The National Transitional Council can only extradite him to the International Criminal Court (ICC) once he has been handed over to him by the Revolutionary Brigade there. In a video message broadcast on November 22, 2011, Gaddafi warned against Abd al-Hakim Balhaj , the chairman of the Tripoli military council. When he was arrested, Gaddafi is said to have been glad that he fell into the hands of the units of the Sintan Brigades and not those of Misrata . The commanders in Sintan said that they did not extradite him to Tripoli because they wanted to spare him the fate of his father.

In early June 2012, the dispute between Libya and the ICC over the question of where Saif al-Islam should be brought to justice escalated. Following a meeting with Saif al-Islam in Sintan, four ICC employees were placed under house arrest on suspicion of espionage. The focus of the investigation was Melinda Taylor, the Australian public defender Saifs al-Islam; the authorities accuse her of espionage and "communication with the enemy". During a conversation with Saif al-Islam, she is said to have had a pen with an integrated camera and documents from his former confidante, Mohammed Ismail, who is wanted by the Libyan judiciary.

On August 21, 2012, it became known that Libya had finally refused to extradite Gaddafi to the ICC. The trial was supposed to start in az-Zintan in September 2012 without ICC involvement, but was postponed due to the transfer of Abdullah al-Senussi from Mauritania to Libya and started in spring 2013. Gaddafi was accused of providing information to an ICC lawyer to have endangered national security. War crimes charges were also being prepared. He faced the death penalty in both trials . He was also accused of recruiting mercenaries, air strikes on civilian targets and shooting demonstrators.

In July 2015, Saif al-Islam was sentenced to death by shooting in a trial in Tripoli . Since the rebels refused to extradite him to the court in Tripoli, he could only attend the trial via a video link. Gaddafi has been found guilty of incitement to murder and rape, among other things. The process was under heavy criticism because it by Libya Dawn - militia was performed under questionable legal standards, among other confessions were made under torture, as his lawyer said. The sentence was not carried out because the convicted person was allowed to appeal and Saif al-Islam was being held outside the control of the government in Tripoli in the mountains of Zintan . He was reportedly released from prison in Zintan on April 12, 2016, but remains under the control of those in power in Zintan.

On June 9, 2017, he was released from prison as part of a general amnesty after having been in prison for a total of around 5½ years since his arrest.

2018 presidential election

On March 22, 2018, Gaddafi announced that he would run as a candidate for the 2018 presidential election in Libya . However, the election planned for December 10, 2018 did not take place.

Fonts

  • The role of civil society in the democratization of global governance institutions: From 'Soft Power' to Collective Decision-Making? Diss., London 2007 ( online ; PDF; 1.9 MB)

Web links

Commons : Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Confusion over the arrest of Gaddafi's son Mutassim Süddeutsche .de, October 13, 2011
  2. ↑ Nevine Afiouni: Qaddafi's children as controversial as father , in Al Arabiya , 26. October 2011
  3. ↑ Katherine Sellgren: UK university reviews funding from Libya ; BBC News, February 22, 2011.
  4. ↑ Alqadhafi, Saif Al-Islam: The Role of civil society in the democratisation of global governance institutions: from “soft power” to collective decision-making? ( Memento of July 28, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) LSE Catalog
  5. ^ Gaddafi son plagiarized his thesis at LSE , in The Independent , March 2, 2011
  6. ↑ Plagiarism allegation against Gaddafi's son , Spiegel On-Line , March 3, 2011
  7. ^ Gaddafi son's LSE thesis 'written by Libyan academic', in The Independent , March 6, 2011
  8. ↑ Christopher Boucek: Dangerous Fallout from Libya's Implosion , March 9, 2011 ( German translation )
  9. ↑ Hans-Christian Rößler: Saif al Islam Gaddafi. The eccentric one. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , issue of August 12, 2007, p. 12.
  10. ^ Britannia Radio: Seif Al-Islam Al-Qadhafi, Libyan Leader's Son, Threatens To Fight to the Very Last Bullet; Warns: 'Rivers of Blood Will Flow Through All the Cities of Libya' ; Abridged transcription of the speech broadcast by al-Arabiya on February 20, 2011, accessed on September 13, 2012.
  11. ↑ Ulrike Putz: Revolt against Gaddafi: Libya's Arab tribes threaten to stop oil production ; Spiegel-Online, report from February 21, 2011.
  12. ↑ Seif-Al-Islam Al-Qaddafi: Full Speech Eve of September 1. ( Memento of April 3, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Mathaba, report of September 1, 2011.
  13. ↑ Interpol writes out Muammar al-Ghadhafi for a search. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . September 9, 2011, accessed September 9, 2011 .
  14. ↑ Transitional Council announces Gaddafi's death. FAZ.net, October 20, 2011.
  15. ^ Contradicting information about the circumstances of Gaddafi's death. In: Berliner Tageszeitung.de on October 21, 2011.
  16. ↑ Celebrating Liberated Libya , Focus. October 23, 2011. 
  17. ↑ RIA Novosti : Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam wants to face the Hague court . Accessed October 26th.
  18. ^ Spiegel Online : Saif al-Gaddafi demands plane and mediator. Retrieved October 27.
  19. ↑ RIA Novosti: Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam: I will never surrender to The Hague . Accessed November 1st.
  20. ↑ Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam arrested . Spiegel Online, November 19, 2011.
  21. ↑ Tripoli or The Hague: Who can bring Gaddafi's son to trial . DerStandard.at, November 21, 2011.
  22. ↑ http://de.rian.ru/video/20111123/261531619.html
  23. ↑ Three fingers off: Confusion about violation of Saif al-Islam . DerStandard.at, November 21, 2011.
  24. ↑ RIA Novosti: Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam must have fingers amputated.
  25. ↑ Gadhafi's Bloody Shirt and Wedding Ring on Sale for $ 2M. ( Memento of February 3, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) ABC News on February 2, 2012.
  26. ↑ Katerina Nikolas: Saif Gaddafi sends warning about Abdel Hakim Belhadj in DigitalJournal.com on November 22, 2011.
  27. ^ Special Report - Libya: divided it stands. Reuters on December 16, 2011.
  28. ↑ Marie-Louise Gumuchian, Ali Shuaib Saif: tried Gaddafi to be moved to Tripoli, then. Reuters on February 12, 2012.
  29. ↑ ICC legal team held over Saif al-Islam visit. Accessed June 11, 2012.
  30. ^ Staff of the criminal court still in Libyan custody ( Memento from June 16, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), accessed June 11, 2012.
  31. ↑ Trial against Saif al-Islam - Gaddafi's son is indicted in Libya. Spiegel Online, August 21, 2012.
  32. ↑ Gaddafi's son: Saif al-Islam appears in court. Spiegel online, May 2, 2013.
  33. ↑ a b Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam sentenced to death by court in Libya. In: The Guardian , July 28, 2015, accessed July 28, 2015.
  34. ↑ Gaddafi's son Saif al Islam sentenced to death.
  35. ↑ Gaddafi son Saif al-Islam 'freed after death sentence quashed'
  36. ↑ The rescuer of Libya is said to be again al-Gaddafi
  37. ↑ Gaddafi's son Seif al-Islam allegedly released again
  38. ^ Saif al-Islam Gaddafi wants to become Libyan president. In: kurier.at. Retrieved January 15, 2020 .
  39. ↑ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/03/20/gaddafis-son-saif-run-libyan-president-2018-elections/
  40. ↑ Saif al-Islam Gaddafi: Agenda for Libya , freitag.de, April 30, 2018 (accessed July 29, 2018)
  41. ↑ Saif al-Gaddafi: a symbol of reconciliation , freitag.de of July 28, 2018 (accessed on July 29, 2018)
personal data
SURNAME Gaddafi, Saif al-Islam al-
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Libyan architect, son of the Libyan revolutionary leader Muammar al-Gaddafi
DATE OF BIRTH June 25, 1972
PLACE OF BIRTH Tripoli