BEIRUT — A Lebanese investigative judge on Friday ordered the conditional release of Hannibal Gadhafi, son of Libya’s late ruler Moammar Gadhafi, setting bail at $11 million and imposing a two-month travel ban, judicial officials said.
Gadhafi, detained in Lebanon since 2015 without formal charges, was brought to the Justice Palace in Beirut, questioned by Judge Zaher Hamadeh, and then returned to his cell pending payment of the bail. His legal team immediately said he cannot afford the sum and will appeal on Monday, seeking to have the amount abolished.
“This decision is almost impossible to be met,” attorney Charbel Milad al-Khoury said, arguing that a man held for a decade without trial should not face such a financial hurdle to regain his liberty.
The 48-year-old had been living in exile in Syria with his Lebanese wife, Aline Skaf, and their children when he was abducted in 2015 by Lebanese militants demanding information about the 1978 disappearance of Shiite cleric Moussa al-Sadr during a visit to Libya. Lebanese authorities later took custody of Gadhafi in Baalbek and transferred him to Beirut, where he has remained in detention and has periodically faced questioning about the al-Sadr case.
On Friday, asked about the cleric’s fate, Gadhafi replied, “I don’t know” and “I don’t remember,” according to officials present at the session. Al-Sadr’s disappearance remains a sensitive issue in Lebanon; his family maintains he could be alive in a Libyan prison, though many presume he is dead.
Gadhafi’s lawyers say their client’s health has deteriorated sharply — he launched a hunger strike in 2023 to protest detention without trial — and Libya’s authorities formally requested his release last year on humanitarian grounds. The defense has also filed a case in Geneva against the Lebanese state over his prolonged detention; a hearing is expected next month, according to judicial officials.
Moammar Gadhafi, who ruled Libya for four decades, was killed in 2011 during the country’s uprising-turned-civil war. Several of his children were killed or imprisoned; others, including Seif al-Islam, Mohammed and Aisha, live in Libya or abroad.
If the $11 million bail is not paid or reduced on appeal, Hannibal Gadhafi will remain in custody despite Friday’s order.
