News Digest

Gaddafi’s son kidnapped as militants demand to know what his father did to cleric

The son of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi was kidnapped by militants demanding information about the fate of a Shiite cleric who went missing decades ago. Hannibal Gaddafi appeared in a video aired on TV in Lebanon saying anyone with information about Imam Moussa al-Sadr should come forward. The 40-year-old appeared to have been beaten up and had black eyes but said in the video he is “in good health, happy and relaxed”. He was later collected by police from the northeastern Lebanese city of Baalbek where he was being held by the Shiite militants, and was being brought back to Beirut.

I am with people who have a cause and they are loyal to their cause. We should respect their loyalty to their cause and at least give them the truth.“

Hannibal Gaddafi in video

Al-Sadr was one of the pioneers of the Shiite movement which has become a force across the Middle East. But his disappearance in 1978 has been a source of discontent in Lebanon; his family believes he may still be alive in a Libyan prison although he would be 87. Most of al-Sadr’s followers are convinced Muammar Gaddafi ordered al-Sadr killed in a dispute over Libyan payments to Lebanese militias. Gaddafi’s son, Hannibal, fled to Algeria after his father was deposed, along with his mother and several other relatives but is now married to a Lebanese woman.