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According to the Libyan News Agency, the death of the 53-year-old Gaddafi, once seen as his father’s heir apparent, was confirmed on Tuesday by the head of his political team.

Some sources claim Gaddafi was killed in an assassination carried out by a “four-man commando unit” at his home, while his sister told Libyan television that he died near the Algerian border.

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi was long regarded as one of the most powerful and feared figures in Libya after his father, who ruled the country from 1969 until he was overthrown and killed in the 2011 uprising.

Born in 1972, Gaddafi played a key role in Libya’s rapprochement with the West from 2000 until the collapse of the Gaddafi regime.

After his father’s overthrow, Saif al-Islam was accused of playing a major role in the brutal suppression of anti-government protests and was imprisoned for about six years by a rival militia in the city of Zintan.

The International Criminal Court sought to try him for crimes against humanity over his alleged role in the 2011 crackdown on opposition protests.

In 2015, a court in Tripoli, under the control of the UN-backed government in western Libya, sentenced him to death in absentia for his role in the repression.

However, two years later he was released under an amnesty law by militias in Tobruk, in the east of the country.

Since Gaddafi’s overthrow, Libya has been fragmented into regions controlled by various militias and is currently divided between two rival governments.

During his father’s rule, despite holding no formal government role, he shaped policy and led high-profile negotiations, including those that resulted in Libya abandoning its nuclear weapons program.

Such agreements led to the lifting of international sanctions on the North African country, and some viewed Saif al-Islam as a reformist and acceptable face of a changing Libya.

Gaddafi always denied wanting to inherit power from his father, saying the reins of power were “not a farm to be inherited.”

However, in 2021 he announced his intention to run in presidential elections, which were indefinitely postponed.