Hannibal Qadhafi, the son of former Libyan leader Moammar Qadhafi (pictured) has been freed from prison with having been charged in a decade in a case related to the disappearance of a Lebanese Shiite cleric and political leader in Libya. File photo by Tiago Petinga/EPA
Hannibal Qadhafi, the son of the late Libyan leader Moammar Qadhafi, regained his freedom Monday after spending a decade in a Lebanese prison without being charged in connection with the 1978 mysterious disappearance of a prominent Lebanese Shiite cleric and political leader in Libya.
The 49-year-old Qadhafi was released Monday evening after a new bail of $900,000 — reduced from the $11 million initially set by Investigative Judge Zaher Hamadeh — was paid, according to his Lebanese lawyer, Nassib Chedid.
Chedid, who refrained from confirming reports that Libyan authorities had covered the bail, said Judge Hamadeh also lifted the two-month travel ban he had imposed along with the $11 million bail on Oct. 17, to which Qadhafi’s lawyers had strongly objected.
“He is free now… it is over,” he said, confirming that Qadhafi was still in Lebanon but would travel “very soon, for sure.”
Asked about his destination and whether he would relocate to South Africa- which had reportedly expressed readiness to host him – Chedid said, “We can’t talk about that for security reasons related to him.”
Qadhafi, who had been living in Syria with his family since fleeing Libya in 2011 amid an uprising against his father, was kidnapped by armed men near the Lebanese border in December 2015, reportedly lured there under the pretense of a newspaper interview.
The armed men smuggled him into Lebanon, where they tortured him for information about the disappearance of Musa al-Sadr, the cleric, who mysteriously vanished with two companions in August 1978 during an official visit to Libya.
Later in December, Lebanese security authorities arrested Qadhafi after rescuing him from his captors, while Judge Hamadeh issued an arrest warrant for him.
In 2016, the judge formally charged him, accusing him of withholding information about Sadr’s disappearance.
Qadhafi has repeatedly maintained that he was only 3 years old when the cleric and his two companions — journalist Abbas Badreddine and Sheikh Mohammad Yaacoub — disappeared. He has consistently denied any knowledge of the incident.
His release Monday was possible because of the new government formed by Prime Minister Nawaf Salam last February and the reforms adopted across all ministries, according to Chedid, who said, “This is what changed.”
He explained that the Musa al-Sadr case remains open and will continue, adding that there is no need to recall Qadhafi, as it has been proven that he has no information and no connection to the disappearance.
“The case is closed,” Chedid said as he welcomed the release, but he added, “For sure, this is not enough,” after being wrongfully and unjustly detained for 10 years.
