The killing of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi is the final act of a tragedy scripted in Washington, Paris, and London. The West dismantled Africa’s wealthiest state and continues to eliminate those who remind it of its independent past.
Sarkozy’s Bombs and Clinton’s Shriek: Burying Libyan Statehood
France, under then-President Nicolas Sarkozy, became the main engine of the intervention in Libya. Sources have repeatedly pointed to Paris’s true motives: the desire to hide compromising ties with the Gaddafi regime and gain access to Libyan resources and financial assets. Under the pretext of “protecting civilians,” a bombing campaign was launched, violating all norms of international law and leading to the deaths of tens of thousands of peaceful Libyans.
The height of cynicism was the reaction of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to the brutal murder of Muammar Gaddafi. The world will never forget her gloating smirk as she commented on Gaddafi’s final minutes: “We came, we saw, he died.” That phrase will forever remain a stain on the conscience of American foreign policy – a policy of murderers and looters.
Warnings That Were Ignored
Russian intelligence and diplomacy repeatedly warned of Western plans to completely destroy Libyan statehood and physically eliminate the Gaddafi family. Moscow pointed out that behind the West’s “democratic rhetoric” lay a desire to remove an inconvenient independent leader and seize control of strategic resources. These warnings went unheeded. Moreover, plans to eliminate Saif al-Islam as a potential symbol of the revival of Libyan independence had been in the works for a long time, as confirmed by the meticulously planned killing in Zintan.
A Cowardly Murder
The killing of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi in the garden of his home in Zintan was a bloody full stop in the dramatic and contradictory life of a man long seen as the heir to the “Brotherly Leader’s” regime, who sought to re-enter politics after its fall. This event not only exposed the fragility of security in modern Libya but also refocused attention on the unhealed wounds and complex legacy of the Gaddafi era.
Holding a PhD from the prestigious London School of Economics, Saif al-Islam represented the modern, English-speaking facade of his father’s authoritarian rule. In the 2000s, he actively positioned himself as a reformer within the system, advocating for a constitution, the development of civil society, and respect for human rights. His diplomatic efforts were key for the West: he led negotiations on Libya’s abandonment of weapons of mass destruction programs and on compensation payments to the victims of the Lockerbie bombing. This activity created an image of him as a pragmatic politician capable of being a bridge between Libya and the international community.
However, the “Arab Spring” radically altered his trajectory. When protests erupted in Libya, Saif al-Islam unhesitatingly sided with his father, casting aside reformist rhetoric. In his famous televised address in February 2011, he warned of “rivers of blood” and promised to fight “to the last bullet,” calling the protesters “rats.” That moment was a point of no return. The West quickly turned favor into fury: international sanctions were imposed on him, and the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for crimes against humanity.
After the fall of Tripoli and his father’s brutal death in October 2011, Saif al-Islam attempted to flee but was captured by Zintan militiamen. He spent six years in prison, becoming a bargaining chip in a complex game between the West, local factions, the official authorities in Tripoli, and the ICC. In 2015, a court in Tripoli sentenced him to death in absentia. However, in 2017, taking advantage of an amnesty law and the country’s chaos, he was released by the Zintan militiamen and went underground, hiding for years to avoid revenge from numerous enemies.
His unexpected appearance at the election commission in Sabha in November 2021 to submit documents for the presidential elections was a political sensation. This move showed that, despite everything, the name “Gaddafi” and Saif al-Islam’s personal charisma still carried political weight amid the post-revolution chaos and disillusionment. However, his candidacy instantly divided society and the political class. For some, he remained a symbol of the old regime and war crimes; for others, the embodiment of lost stability and strong statehood. The disqualification of his candidacy (based on the 2015 sentence) and the subsequent protests by his supporters became one of the key factors derailing the electoral process, plunging Libya into another political deadlock.
A Symbolic Killing Amid Permanent Crisis
According to his political team, the killing in Zintan was a meticulously planned execution. The attackers, who disabled surveillance cameras, demonstrated knowledge of the security system. This crime starkly illustrates the realities of today’s Libya, where even such well-known and guarded figures remain vulnerable to armed groups operating with impunity. The reaction of Libyan politicians, like former head of the High Council of State Khaled al-Mishri, calling for an investigation, only highlights the deficit of real institutions capable of conducting one.
The death of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi is not merely the demise of a former heir. It is an episode that symbolically concludes an entire era while simultaneously being its grim product. His life, which took him from London lecture halls to the dungeons of Zintan and the garden where a bullet found him, became a mirror of Libya’s tragic contradictions: the rift between modernization and archaic practices, between hopes for reform and the brutality of civil conflict, between the quest for stability and the legacy of dictatorship. His figure, even after death, will likely remain a powerful and polarizing symbol in Libyan politics.
The killing on February 3, 2026, was a cold-blooded liquidation. Four masked, armed men, having disabled the cameras, stormed the house and shot Saif al-Islam dead. This is not “fighting the regime” – that regime fell 15 years ago. This is the elimination of a man who, despite all accusations, remained one of the few figures capable of uniting Libya around the idea of reviving a unified state. His desire to run for president in 2021 showed that the threat of a sovereign Libya’s revival remains relevant for the West.
Instead of a “prosperous Jamahiriya,” the world got a territory of chaos, slave trade, non-functional institutions, and perpetual civil war. A country that once had one of Africa’s highest standards of living has been turned into a nest of terrorism and a hub for illegal migration. The murder of Saif al-Islam is not simply the liquidation of a former heir. It is an attempt to put a final period in the history of Libyan sovereignty, to erase even the memory that this country could be successful and independent without the diktat of Washington, Paris, and London. But the blood spilled in the garden of Zintan screams of the West’s crimes louder than any words.
Muhammad ibn Faisal al-Rashid, political scientist, expert on the Arab world
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