The release of Hannibal Gaddafi after a decade of detention in Lebanon has put the family of Libya’s former ruler back into the spotlight.
Fourteen years after the Libyan regime fell in 2011, some family members have died and others have chosen quiet exile, while the Gaddafi name still draws loyal followers.
There were 10 children — two of whom were adopted — known for their excesses during the iron-fisted rule of their father, Muammar Gaddafi. All grew up during the 1970s and 1980s as the Libyan leader asserted his absolute power and distinctive ideological vision, which ultimately led to his downfall during the 2011 uprising.
Having once made headlines in international tabloids and at the heart of Libya’s inner circle, the unruly children of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya’s founder have grown older, swapping arrogance for discretion. This is a look at the fates of these descendants of the Qadhadhfa tribe from Sirte, who once imagined a dynastic future.
Hannibal, the hothead (49)
Hannibal Gaddafi’s release was announced by the Libyan justice ministry of the eastern government in Benghazi. Known for his brutality, he made headlines in France for domestic violence and in Switzerland for mistreatment of domestic staff. However, the doctor and military officer by training spent 10 years in prison in Lebanon for a case unrelated directly to him.
A political refugee in Syria, he was kidnapped in 2015 by a Lebanese militia acting under orders from former MP Hassan Yacoub, whose father, Imam Mohamed Yacoub, was among three men who disappeared along with the Lebanese Shiite leader Moussa Sadr during a visit to Libya in 1978. Accused of “withholding information”, Hannibal, who was only three years old when they disappeared, was nonetheless imprisoned in Beirut. The man who once scandalously drove his Porsche the wrong way on the Champs-Élysées now aims to quietly return to Libya.
Aisha, the pride and joy (48)
She was her father’s pride when she joined the defence team for former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein in 2004, becoming a trusted adviser. The Libyan leader’s only daughter and favourite child earned her reputation as a tough negotiator following the release of Western hostages held by the Islamist group Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines. President of the charitable Waatassimou Foundation, the woman whom Italian media nicknamed the “Claudia Schiffer of the desert” married Ahmed Gaddafi Ghohsi, her father’s cousin and a colonel in the elite military corps. She lost her role as a UN goodwill ambassador in 2011.
When the regime fell, she fled to southern Algeria with her family, including her mother Safia, in September 2011. Nine months pregnant, she made controversial public statements, praising the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and labelling the new Libyan authorities as “traitors”. An embarrassed Algerian government, through foreign minister Mourad Medelci, called her remarks “unacceptable”. Algeria’s troublesome guest eventually settled in Oman after agreeing not to make public statements.
Saif al-Islam, the heir apparent (52)
The former diplomatic spokesman of the Libyan regime, through the Gaddafi International Foundation, drew attention in January 2025 claiming that Nicolas Sarkozy did indeed receive Libyan funds for his 2007 election campaign. He also alleged pressure to change his testimony in this case, which is now on trial in Paris. This reminded observers that Saif al-Islam, who had once positioned himself as a young and ambitious reformist, even engaging in negotiations with his father’s opponents, was deeply intertwined with the affairs of the country he once hoped to lead.
His mediation in the 2007 case against Bulgarian nurses accused of deliberately infecting Libyan children with HIV boosted the reputation of this London School of Economics PhD graduate, who also negotiated compensation for victims of the Lockerbie bombing ordered by Muammar Gaddafi.
Becoming a symbol of violent repression during the 2011 uprising, he was captured by a militia in November of that year and sentenced hastily to death. However, he was never handed over to Libyan authorities or the International Criminal Court, which demanded his extradition. He was freed in 2017. He vanished from public view until announcing his candidacy for the delayed 2021 presidential elections.
Mohamed, the engineer (54)
Telecom tycoon and president of Libya’s Olympic Committee, Mohamed is the eldest son and the only child from Gaddafi’s first marriage. Quiet and politically inactive, he first fled to Algeria before moving, like his sister Aisha, to Oman.
Saadi, the fallen footballer (51)
A football enthusiast who dreamed of a professional career in Libya and received coaching from Maradona, Saadi invested in Juventus Turin and briefly played for various Italian teams. With less than 30 minutes of total professional playtime, his career was ended by a doping scandal in 2007.
As president of Libya’s football federation, he failed to secure Libya’s bid to host the 2010 World Cup, later moving into construction with ambitious city-building plans.
Appointed by his father to lead an elite anti-terrorism unit before being dismissed in 2007, Saadi ordered crackdowns during the 2011 Benghazi uprising. After seeking refuge in Niger, he was extradited in 2014 and convicted of property seizure by intimidation. Released in 2021 due to tribal mediation and Prime Minister Abdelhamid Dbeibah’s intervention, he relocated to Istanbul, where he disappeared from public view.
Milad Aboutztaïa and Hana, the adopted children
Little is known about Gaddafi’s adopted children with his second wife, Safia. Family legend says Milad Aboutztaïa saved his father during the 1986 US raid, in which Hana, then two years old, allegedly died. Other sources suggest Hana survived, studied in London and practised medicine in Tripoli.
Lastly, three of Gaddafi’s sons died during the regime’s fall in 2011. Moatassim Billah, who was 49, was briefly exiled to Egypt, led crackdowns in Misrata and Benghazi, and died in Sirte in 2012. Known for lavish parties on St Barts attended by celebrities like Mariah Carey and Beyoncé, he had previously been removed from power after plotting against his father.
Khamis, the ‘warlord’, led a special battalion of 4,000 troops and was killed near Tripoli aged 30. Saif al-Arab, 29, a discreet military officer educated in Germany, was killed in an April 2011 NATO bombing.
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