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Seif Al-Islam Freed, Whereabouts Unknown | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Seif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, attends a hearing behind bars in a courtroom in Zintan May 25, 2014. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo


Cairo- Two days after his release from the town of Zintan under an amnesty law passed by a parliament based in eastern Libya, Seif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, is now free to practice any aspect of his life, the Libyan National Army led by military commander Khalifa Haftar confirmed on Sunday.

However, Gaddafi’s new whereabouts are still unknown.

Seif had been held in Zintan, about 170 kilometers southwest of Tripoli, since November 2011.

Tribal sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that contacts have been made with leaderships in central and western Libya to have more information on the matter.

In 2015, a court in Tripoli, where extremist and militia forces rule, sentenced Saif to death in absentia for war crimes.

Zintan’s Abu Baker Sadiq brigade, led by Commander Ajmi al-Atir, who is close to Haftar, announced on Sunday it has chosen to release Saif.

Ahmed al-Mismari, a spokesman for the Libyan National Army, asserted that Seif Gaddafi is now free in line with the amnesty law.

“He is outside Zintan city now and he can take part in any political process if there are no legal hindrances to it,” al-Mismari said.

Gaddafi’s loyalists in the east of the country, where Haftar is building power, have been pushing for Saif’s release.

However, sources close to Libya’s presidential council of the Government of National Accord led by Fayez al-Sarraj, said that members of the council and other militia leaderships in Tripoli and Misrata, reject the decision of freeing the son of Muammar Gaddafi.

Meanwhile, it remains unclear what role Seif al-Islam would play in Libya, where several armed groups and three governments rule the country.

While still under arrest, Seif established last year the Popular Front for the Liberation of Libya, which includes some loyalists of his father and other figures who sympathize with him.