Tripoli (AFP) - Two of the sons of the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi announced that their brother Saif al-Islam, who was assassinated by unknown assailants on Tuesday, will be buried on Friday in Bani Walid, the stronghold of a tribe that remained loyal to the colonel who remained in power for more than 40 years.

Published on: 05/02/2026 - 13:29 Last updated: 05/02/2026 - 19:05

Muhammad Gaddafi, Saif al-Islam’s half-brother, wrote on his Facebook page on Thursday that the time and date of the deceased’s funeral were set “in full agreement between family members,” adding that “the funeral will be held on Friday after Friday prayers in the city of Bani Walid,” in western Libya, about 200 kilometers south of Tripoli.

Gaddafi's eldest son added that this choice "comes in appreciation of the status of the city of Bani Walid and its people, and in recognition of its well-known positions (...) and of what was known about it not supporting the catastrophe and division that the nation suffered during the events of February 2011."

As for Al-Saadi Gaddafi, he wrote on the X platform that the body of his brother Saif Al-Islam will be buried “in Bani Walid by the Warfalla (tribe) and next to the grave of his brother Khamis Muammar Gaddafi.” He called on "everyone" to "adhere to public order and not deviate from the law."

For his part, Abdul Hamid Al-Dabaiba, Prime Minister of the Libyan Government, considered the killing of Saif Al-Islam “a red line that should not be tolerated,” denouncing what he described as paths of “assassination and exclusion” that “deepened the division.”

Al-Dabaiba warned against attempts to “prejudice the right of the relatives of the deceased or the Gaddafi tribe to hold mourning ceremonies,” or to impose any “security manifestations outside of Libyan human values ​​and social customs.”

For her part, Interior Minister Imad Trabelsi confirmed that instructions had been issued to cooperate with the Public Prosecution to investigate the killing of Gaddafi’s son.

Pointing out that he had issued orders to secure “Saif al-Islam’s funeral tomorrow, Friday, in the city of Bani Walid.”

Bani Walid, with a population of 100,000 people, is the stronghold of the powerful Warfalla tribe, which still commemorates Muammar Gaddafi since his overthrow in 2011.

Until the announcement on Tuesday of the assassination of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi in his home in the city of Zintan (northwestern Libya), his whereabouts remained unknown.

For years, Saif al-Islam sought to appear as a moderate reformist, a reputation that collapsed with the outbreak of the uprising when he threatened “rivers of blood.”

He was arrested in southern Libya and was held for a long time by an armed group in the city of Zintan (145 km southwest of the capital).

Saif al-Islam, against whom an international subpoena was issued through Interpol, appeared before the Libyan judiciary between 2012 and 2013, and he, along with a number of symbols of his father’s rule, was later sentenced to death in 2015 on charges of genocide and suppression of the demonstrators of the Libyan revolution.

But the gunmen who were holding him refused to hand him over to the judiciary, and they released him in 2017.

In 2021, he submitted his candidacy for the presidential elections in person in the city of Sabha, relying on the support of supporters of the previous regime, but the election was postponed for political and security reasons.

Of Muammar Gaddafi's seven sons, only four remain alive: Muhammad, Al-Saadi, Hannibal, and his daughter Aisha, all of whom live outside Libya, hosted by several countries that granted them asylum, like their mother.

Libya is currently divided between two authorities: the national unity government in Tripoli, headed by Abdul Hamid al-Dabaiba, which is internationally recognized, and a parallel authority in the east, based in Benghazi, supported by Parliament and dominated by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar.

© 2026 AFP

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