domenica 20 novembre 2011

From heir apparent to NTC prisoner

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Saif al-Islam Gaddafi addresses the country on state television
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi had been on the run and in hiding for almost a month Photo: AFP

Now the 39-year-old, who occupied no formal political office but wielded vast influence, is a prisoner of his country's new rulers - arrested in the southern desert by forces of the National Transitional Council.

He had been on the run and in hiding for almost a month since the last towns held by troops still loyal to his father fell in mid-October.

For years he had been seen as a western-leaning and reformist figure inside the Gaddafi regime, and was courted by western politicians and businessmen who had high hopes for the future.

But once the rebellion in Libya got under way he became increasingly vocal in support of the regime's violent crackdown.

"Libya is at a crossroads. If we do not agree today on reforms, we will not be mourning 84 people, but thousands of deaths, and rivers of blood will run through Libya," he said in February, soon after the uprising began.

Even at that early point in what became a long drawn-out civil war he was significantly downplaying the death toll inflicted on civilians by his father's government: independent observers said at least 233 had been killed over the previous days.

Saif al-Islam distinguished himself as one of the most dependable of the regime's envoys, presenting himself as a determined reformist working to normalise relations with the West.

In August 2007, he announced wide-ranging reforms, inevitably sparking speculation on the question of succession, even if he insisted "Libya will not become a dynasty or a monarchy nor a dictatorship."

He announced his withdrawal from politics in August 2008.

"I have decided no longer to intervene in state affairs," he told thousands of young supporters at the time.

Presenting himself as a humanitarian ambassador, both within Libya and outside the country through the charitable body he set up in 1997, the young Gaddafi was at the heart of the complex mediation over the Bulgarian nurses and Palestinian doctor freed by Libya in July 2007.

The six had been in prison for eight years – much of the time under sentence of death – after being convicted of infecting hundreds of children with the HIV that can lead to Aids.

Saif al-Islam, whose name means the sword of Islam in Arabic, also intervened several times in international negotiations through his Gaddafi Foundation for Development.

Born on June 25, 1972 in Tripoli, Saif is the eldest son of the late Libyan leader's second wife and the second of his six sons and two daughters.

In 1995, he received his degree in architecture and engineering at Tripoli's Al-Fateh University, resulting in his popularly used nickname "Engineer Saif."

His father then charged him with drawing up an extensive building complex with hotels, mosque and accommodation.

Five years later, the tall shaven-headed young man who has the air of a playboy, pursued his studies in Vienna where he obtained a management degree from the International Business School.

It was at that time that he became friends with Joerg Haider, the late leader of Austria's populist right wing.

Saif al-Islam finished his university studies by gaining a doctorate at Britain's London School of Economics.

A well-known personality in Tripoli where he went into business, he made his appearance on the international scene in 2000 when his foundation negotiated the release of Western hostages held by a group of Islamist extremists in the Philippines.

Speaking English and German and a little French, he expresses himself calmly and deliberately, and is pictured in the press as the new, respectable, face of a regime that was for years accused of supporting terrorism and still draws accusations of authoritarianism.

Saif al-Islam also negotiated the financial compensation paid by Libya to the families of victims killed in the Lockerbie plane bombing in 1988 and the 1989 bombing of a French airliner.

A trendy bachelor, keeping lions as pets, and enjoying sea fishing, hunting with falcons and horse-riding, Saif al-Islam also paints as a hobby.

"Libya is not Egypt, it is not Tunisia," he said in a fiery but rambling speech in February, adding that attempts at another "Facebook revolution" would be resisted.

But even then Saif al-Islam's threats betrayed a note of desperation, and he suggested that Benghazi, the opposition hotbed where the protests erupted, was now out of government control.

"At this moment there are tanks being driven by civilians in Benghazi," he said, insisting the uprising was aimed at installing Islamist rule and that it would be ruthlessly crushed.



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