BEIRUT: A Lebanese judge on Friday ordered the release of the son of Libya’s late leader Muammar Qaddafi on condition that he pay $11 million bail.
Hannibal Qaddafi has been imprisoned in Lebanon for a decade without being charged.
The expected release comes after his lawyers have said that he had been ill in his cell at police headquarters in Beirut. Libya in 2023 formally requested his release, citing his deteriorating health after he went on hunger strike to protest his detention without trial.
On Friday, judicial officials said he was taken to the Justice Palace in Beirut, where Judge Zaher Hamadeh questioned him and later ordered his release once the money is paid. Another condition for his release, however, is that he be banned from traveling outside Lebanon for two months.
After the session was over, Qaddafi was taken back to the cell.
Judicial officials in Beirut said Qaddafi’s defense team has filed a case against the Lebanese state in Geneva over holding him without trial, adding that the case is expected to be discussed in Switzerland next month.
One of Qaddafi’s lawyers, Charbel Milad Al-Khoury, told The Associated Press that Qaddafi does not have the money and does not have access to accounts in order to pay the bail. Al-Khoury added that Hannibal Qaddafi’s defense team plan to lodge an appeal on Monday over the $11 million bail and ask that it be abolished.
“This decision is almost impossible to be met,” Al-Khoury said about the bail. “Hannibal has been held for 10 years and it is not logical to release him for $11 million bail.”
Qaddafi has been detained in Lebanon since 2015 after he was abducted by Lebanese militants demanding information on the whereabouts of a prominent Lebanese Shiite cleric. Lebanese police later announced it had picked up Qaddafi from the city of Baalbek, in northeastern Lebanon, where he was being held. He has since been held in a Beirut jail.
Qaddafi had been living in exile in Syria with his Lebanese wife, Aline Skaf, and children until he was abducted and brought to Lebanon.
He has faced questioning over the past years over the 1978 disappearance of Shiite cleric, Moussa Al-Sadr, during a visit to Libya.
The case 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 he is dead. He would be 96 years old.
Al-Sadr was the founder of a Shiite political and military group that took part in the long Lebanese civil war that began in 1975, largely pitting Muslims against Christians.
Asked on Friday, about Al-Sadr, Qaddafi responded “I Don’t know” and “I don’t remember,” according to four judicial officials who attended the session. They spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
Muammar Qaddafi was killed by opposition fighters during Libya’s 2011 uprising-turned-civil war, ending his four-decade rule of the North African country.
Hannibal Qaddafi, who was born nearly three 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 moved to Syria where he was given political asylum and stayed there until he was abducted.
Muammar Qaddafi had eight children from two marriages. Most of them had significant roles in his government. His son Muatassim was killed at the same time as Qaddafi Sr. was captured and slain. Two other sons, Seif Al-Arab and Khamis, were killed in the uprising.
Seif Al-Islam, the one-time heir apparent to his father, has been in Libya since his release from detention there in 2017. Qaddafi’s son Mohammed and daughter Aisha live in Oman. Al-Saadi, a former soccer player, was released from prison in Libya in 2021 after being jailed following repatriation from Niger in 2014, and is believed to be living in Turkiye.
Hannibal Qaddafi, son of late Libyan leader, ordered released in Lebanon if he pays $11m bail
https://arab.news/6a32y
Hannibal Qaddafi, son of late Libyan leader, ordered released in Lebanon if he pays $11m bail
- Judge Zaher Hamadeh questioned him and later ordered his release once the money is paid
- Another condition for his release, however, is that he be banned from traveling outside Lebanon for two months
Soleimani warned Al-Assad about ‘spy’ Luna Al-Shibl: Al-Majalla
LONDON: The late Iranian General Qassem Soleimani confronted Syria’s National Security Bureau chief Ali Mamlouk in late 2019 after seeing Luna Al-Shibl leaving his office. Al-Majalla magazine claims its reporters reviewed a document containing the full Arabic transcript of their exchange.
Soleimani reportedly asked, “Who is this?” and Mamlouk replied, “She is Louna Al-Shibl, the president’s adviser.”
The Quds Force commander pressed further: “I know, I know… but who is she really? Where did she work?”
According to Al-Majalla, a sister publication of Arab News, he said her former salary was “ten thousand dollars,” compared with her current salary of “five hundred thousand Syrian pounds,” before asking: “Does it make sense for someone to leave ten thousand dollars for five hundred thousand pounds? She is a spy.”
Both Soleimani and Maher Al-Assad, commander of the Syrian army’s powerful Fourth Division, had warned the ousted president’s inner circle about Al-Shibl, Al-Majalla reported.
‘Suspicious’ car crash
On July 2, 2024, Al-Shibl was involved in what officials described as a traffic accident on the Damascus-Dimas highway. She was hospitalized and died four days later.
But Al-Majalla reported that photos of her armored BMW showed only minor damage, raising immediate questions among those close to the case.
Eyewitnesses told the magazine that the crash was intentional. One said, “a car approached and rammed her vehicle,” and before her bodyguard could exit, “a man attacked her and struck her on the back of the head,” causing paralysis that led to her death.
She was first taken to Al-Saboura clinic, then transferred to Al-Shami Hospital. Several senior regime-linked figures, including businessman Mohammed Hamsho and an aide to Maher Al-Assad, were present when her condition deteriorated. One witness told Al-Majalla that when her bodyguard tried to explain what had happened, “he was arrested immediately in front of the others.”
The presidency later issued a brief statement announcing her death. Her funeral was attended only by a handful of officials. Then president Al-Assad did not attend.
