Saif al-Islam Gaddafi’s Birth to Mysterious Death

(MENAFN) Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, once considered the heir apparent to Libya’s late leader Muammar Gaddafi, lived a life marked by dramatic shifts that ended with his death under mysterious circumstances.

Libyan officials reported that the 53-year-old Saif al-Islam was killed on Tuesday in the western city of Zintan. Local media said he was shot by four masked assailants, and CCTV cameras at his residence had been disabled before the attack. Moussa Ibrahim, a former government spokesman under Gaddafi, described the killing as “treacherous” and noted that Saif al-Islam had been committed to “a united, sovereign and safe Libya for all its people.” Ibrahim added that he had spoken with him just two days prior, and that his primary concern remained Libya’s stability and the protection of its citizens.

Born on June 5, 1972, inside the Bab al-Aziziya compound in Tripoli—the center of his father’s rule—Saif al-Islam was the eldest son of Gaddafi and his second wife, Safia Farkash. He attended Omar ibn al-Khattab School for primary education, continued at Martyr Mohammed al-Maqrif School for middle school, and graduated from Ali Wreith Public High School.

He earned a degree in architecture from the Faculty of Engineering at Al-Fateh University in Tripoli in 1994. Saif al-Islam later pursued economics at IMAD University in Austria, obtaining a master’s degree in 2000, and completed a doctorate at the London School of Economics and Political Science in the United Kingdom.

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