Saif al-Islam Gaddafi

Saif al-Islam Muammar al-Gaddafi (سيف الإسلام معمر القذافي; born 25 June 1972) is a Libyan political figure.

He is the second son of the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and his second wife Safia Farkash.

He was a part of his father's inner circle, performing public relations and diplomatic roles on his behalf.

He publicly turned down his father's offer of the country's second highest post and held no official government position.

According to United States Department of State officials in Tripoli, during his father's reign, he was the second most widely recognized person in Libya, being at times the de facto prime minister, and was mentioned as a possible successor, though he rejected this.

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering science from Tripoli's Al Fateh University in 1994.

However, there is another report stating that he is an architect.

After several countries, including France and Canada, refused to grant him a student visa, Saif earned an MBA from the Imadec business school in Vienna, where he became friends with OPEC official Shukri Ghanem and Austrian far-right politician Jörg Haider.

Upon his arrival in Vienna, Saif was granted permission by the Mayor of Vienna and the head of Schönbrunn Zoo to keep his pet tigers at the zoo.

In 1998, he founded the official charity, the Gaddafi International Foundation for Charity Associations, which intervened in various hostage situations involving Islamic militants and the crisis of the HIV trial in Libya and the resulting European Union-Libyan rapprochement.

According to Simon McDonald, Saif still had a white tiger at his farm near Tripoli in the late 2000s, but the white tiger was later turned into a rug in Saif's majlis.

Saif's paintings made up the bulk of the international Libyan art exhibit, "The Desert is Not Silent" (2002–2005), a show which was supported by a host of international corporations with direct ties to his father's government, among them the ABB Group, Siemens, Petro-Canada, Bombardier, and SNC-Lavalin.

In 2002, Saif sued The Sunday Telegraph for libel over a 1995 article that alleged he had masterminded an international money-laundering conspiracy.

The lawsuit was settled after the intervention of Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud with The Sunday Telegraph agreeing to publish an apology and pay a portion of Saif's legal costs.

In 2005, Gaddafi was awarded a "Young Global Leader" title by the World Economic Forum.

Gaddafi was awarded a PhD degree in 2008 from the London School of Economics, where he attended amid a series of contacts between the school and the Libyan political establishment.

He presented a thesis on "The role of civil society in the democratisation of global governance institutions: from 'soft power' to collective decision-making?"

Examined by Meghnad Desai (London School of Economics) and Anthony McGrew (University of Southampton), among the LSE academics acknowledged in the thesis as directly assisting with it were Nancy Cartwright, David Held and Alex Voorhoeve (the son of former Dutch minister Joris Voorhoeve).

Professor Joseph Nye of Harvard University is also thanked for having read portions of the manuscript and providing advice and direction.

Alongside accusations of plagiarism, allegations abound that Saif's thesis was in many parts ghost-written by consultants from Monitor Group, which earned $3 million per year in fees from Muammar Gaddafi.

Speaking in Sabha on 20 August 2008, Gaddafi said that he would no longer involve himself in state affairs.

He noted that he had previously "intervene[d] due to the absence of institutions", but said that he would no longer do so.

He dismissed any potential suggestion that this decision was due to disagreement with his father, saying that they were on good terms.

He also called for political reforms within the context of the Jamahiriya system and rejected the notion that he could succeed his father, saying that "this is not a farm to inherit".

Saif, who was considered a reformist, had a longstanding rivalry with his hardline brother Mutassim and his influence began to wane after the lifting of Western sanctions.

In November 2010, Saif's independent newspaper was suspended after it published an article calling for a “final assault” on his father's government.

His newspaper also defended Nuri Mesmari, who had defected to France earlier that month.

Some of his allies, including 20 reporters, were arrested.

Gaddafi was the president of the Libyan National Association for Drugs and Narcotics Control (DNAG).

An arrest warrant was issued for him on 27 June 2011 by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for charges of crimes against humanity against the Libyan people, for killing and persecuting civilians, under Articles 7(1)(a) and 7(1)(h) of the Rome statute.

He denied the charges.

Gaddafi was captured in southern Libya by the Zintan militia on 19 November 2011, after the end of the Libyan Civil War, and flown by plane to Zintan.

In January 2011, WEF founder Klaus Schwab personally invited Saif to attend the annual WEF Forum in Davos.

He was sentenced to death on 28 July 2015 by a court in Tripoli for crimes during the civil war, in a widely criticised trial conducted in absentia.

He remained in the custody of the de facto independent authorities of Zintan.

On 10 June 2017, he was released from prison in Zintan, according to a statement from Abu Bakr al-Siddiq Battalion.

Later the same month, his full amnesty was declared by the Tobruk-based government led by Khalifa Haftar.

, Gaddafi remained wanted under his ICC arrest warrant for crimes against humanity.

On 14 November, he attempted to register as a candidate in the 2021 Libyan presidential election, but was rejected.

This decision was overturned less than a month later, reinstating him as a presidential candidate.