45-year-old Saif al-Islam Gaddafi was groomed to be his father’s successor before his capture during the Nato-backed uprising in 2011
The son of fallen Libyan tyrant Colonel Gaddafi has announced that he will run for president in Libyan elections this year.
After the 2011 uprising ousted the family from power, Mr Gaddafi, the London-educated and western-friendly face of the former regime was held by local militias in the city of Zintan. He was reported to have been released last summer.
Ayman Abu Ras, a spokesman for Mr Gaddafi’s campaign, said that Mr Gaddafi would run as the candidate for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Libya, a Libyan political party formed last year in Tunisia. Speaking to al-Araby al-Jadeed, a Qatar-affiliated news website, he said Mr Gaddafi was not a “military man” like his father and that he had a “open-minded” vision for Libya that included national reconciliation and fighting terrorism.
From the time of the uprising, rival brigades of former rebels have ruled the country, which has been divided in two between administrations in the west of the country and the east. Terrorist groups such as Islamic State and networks of brutal people traffickers have exploited the security vacuum to seize power.
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