Gaddafi’s son goes on hunger strike in Lebanon to protest his detention without trial

BEIRUT (AP) — A son of late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, detained in Lebanon for more than seven years, began a hunger strike on Saturday to protest his detention without trial, his lawyer said.

Hannibal Gaddafi has been detained in Lebanon since 2015 after being abducted to neighboring Syria where he lived as a political refugee. He was kidnapped by Lebanese activists demanding information on the fate of a Shiite cleric who went missing in Libya 45 years ago.

Gaddafi was later arrested by Lebanese authorities and held in a Beirut prison without trial.

Attorney Paul Romanos told The Associated Press that his client started the hunger strike on Saturday morning and “he is serious and will continue until the end”. Romanos didn’t go into details about the case as he wasn’t authorized to talk to the media about it.

Gaddafi released a statement outlining his terms.

“How can a political prisoner be held without a fair trial for all these years? Gaddafi, who is married to a Lebanese woman, wrote in his statement.

The Libyan citizen added that now that he is on a hunger strike, “those who treat me unfairly” will be responsible for the results. He added that “the time has come to free the law from the hands of politicians”.

Romanos said his client suffered from back pain as he had been held in a small cell for years without being able to move or exercise.

The disappearance of prominent Lebanese Shia cleric Moussa al-Sadr in 1978 has long been a sore point in Lebanon. The cleric’s family believe he may still be alive in a Libyan prison, although most Lebanese assume al-Sadr is dead. He would be 94 years old.

Al-Sadr was the founder of a Shiite political and military group that took part in the long-running Lebanese civil war that began in 1975, largely pitting Muslims against Christians.

Born in the Iranian holy city of Qom, al-Sadr came to Lebanon in 1959 to work for Shia rights in the southern port city of Tyre. In 1974, a year before the 15-year-long Lebanese civil war broke out, al-Sadr founded the Movement of the Destitute, attracting thousands of supporters.

The following year, he created the Amal military wing – Arabic for “hope” and an acronym of the Arabic name for the militia, the Lebanese Resistance Brigades – which later fought in Lebanon’s civil war. The group is led by the powerful Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament, Nabih Berri.

Since al-Sadr’s disappearance, Libya has maintained the cleric and his two traveling companions left Tripoli in 1978 on a flight to Rome and suggested he was the victim of a power struggle between Shiites.

Most al-Sadr supporters believe that Muammar Gaddafi ordered al-Sadr’s death in a dispute over Libyan payments to Lebanese militias.

The Libyan leader was killed by opposition fighters in 2011, ending his four-decade rule over the North African country. Even after his death, al-Sadr’s fate is still unknown.

Hannibal Gaddafi was born two years before al-Sadr died. He fled to Algeria after the fall of Tripoli, with his mother and several other relatives. He then ended up in Syria where he was granted political asylum before being kidnapped and taken to Lebanon.

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