Son of Muammar el-Qaddafi set free in Libya

The son of the late Libyan leader Muammar el-Qaddafi, sentenced to death in 2015 for his role in killing protesters during the country’s 2011 uprising, has been freed under an amnesty, The Economist reports.

Saif Al-Islam, 44, is the second son of Qaddafi, who was deposed and killed by rebels in 2011. Islam had been held for five years by a militia in Zintan, a region of northwestern Libya, and was sentenced to death in absentia by a court in the capital Tripoli in July 2015 for his role in the killing of protesters during the uprising.

Islam’s lawyer Karim Khan told France 24 on Wednesday that the dictator’s son had been freed on April 12 as part of an amnesty “in accordance with [Libyan] law.”

Khan confirmed that Islam was “well, safe and in Libya.”

Islam’s trial in Libya began in April 2014, but the judicial process was undermined by “serious due process violations,” according to rights group Human Rights Watch.

Islam’s death sentence was never carried out as instability and fighting raged throughout the North African country in 2015.

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