Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi

Saif al-Islam Muammar al-Gaddafi (; born 25 June 1972) is a Libyan political figure. He is the second son of the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and his second wife Safia Farkash. He was a part of his father's inner circle, performing public relations and diplomatic roles on his behalf. He publicly turned down his father's offer of the country's second highest post and held no official government position. According to United States Department of State officials in Tripoli, during his father's reign, he was the second most widely recognized person in Libya, being at times the de facto prime minister, and was mentioned as a possible successor, though he rejected this. An arrest warrant was issued for him on 27 June 2011 by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for charges of crimes against humanity against the Libyan people, for killing and persecuting civilians, under Articles 7(1)(a) and 7(1)(h) of the Rome statute. He denied the charges. Gaddafi was captured in southern Libya by the Zintan militia on 19 November 2011, after the end of the Libyan Civil War, and flown by plane to Zintan. He was sentenced to death on 28 July 2015 by a court in Tripoli for crimes during the civil war, in a widely criticised trial conducted in absentia. He remained in the custody of the de facto independent authorities of Zintan. On 10 June 2017, he was released from prison in Zintan, according to a statement from Abu Bakr al-Siddiq Battalion. Later the same month, his full amnesty was declared by the Tobruk-based government led by Khalifa Haftar. , Gaddafi remained wanted under his ICC arrest warrant for crimes against humanity. On 14 November, he attempted to register as a candidate in the 2021 Libyan presidential election, but was rejected. This decision was overturned less than a month later, reinstating him as a presidential candidate. Early life and career Saif al-Islam Gaddafi graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering science from Tripoli's Al Fateh University in 1994. However, there is another report stating that he is an architect. After several countries, including France and Canada, refused to grant him a student visa, Saif earned an MBA from the Imadec business school in Vienna, where he became friends with OPEC official Shukri Ghanem and Austrian far-right politician Jörg Haider. Upon his arrival in Vienna, Saif was granted permission by the Mayor of Vienna and the head of Schönbrunn Zoo to keep his pet tigers at the zoo.