The family of slain former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has warned that it would file lawsuits locally and internationally to press for the release of his third son Saadi, accusing the parties detaining him of torture.
In April last year, Tripoli's court of appeals acquitted Saadi Gaddafi of murdering Bashir al-Rayani, a former footballer and coach of Tripoli's Al-Ittihad football club, in 2005.
Since his extradition from Niger in March 2014, Saadi has been held in al-Hadaba prison in the Libyan capital Tripoli.
His family said in a statement carried by the pro-Gaddafi Jana news agency that it would “file the lawsuits against all those involved in Saadi’s incarceration and his torture despite being acquitted by the court.”
It claimed that Saadi’s captors denied him the appropriate medical care, putting his life in danger.
The family urged the international community and human rights officials to assume their legal and moral responsibilities against those who have “lost their conscience” and continued to "torture" Saadi Gaddafi despite his acquittal.
Al-Hadaba is among the most notorious prisons in Libya where thousands of prisoners, including former regime figures, are held.
A source close to the Gaddafi family told Asharq Al-Awsat that several lawyers have been tasked with filing the lawsuits against a “long list of personalities who will be accused of involvement in torturing Saadi and denying him freedom.”
The family complained last year that it had lost contact with Saadi, saying “all we know is that he has been taken hostage to a prison that is run by militias in the capital.”
But the Libyan prosecutor’s office snapped back, claiming Saadi remains in the Tripoli prison and "hasn’t left it.”
