Lebanese authorities on Monday freed Hannibal Gaddafi, son of the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, after he posted a $900,000 bail, bringing an end to his decade-long detention over allegations that he withheld information about a missing Lebanese cleric, according to security officials and his legal team.
His lawyer, Charbel Milad al-Khoury, confirmed to the Associated Press that Gaddafi was released on Monday evening following the completion of all necessary paperwork.
Two Lebanese security officials, who spoke anonymously due to regulations, also verified the release.
“Hannibal is officially free and has the full right to choose the destination that he wants,” al-Khoury said, declining to reveal further details about his client’s next steps for security reasons.
The release followed recent decisions by Lebanese judicial authorities to lift a travel ban on Gaddafi and significantly reduce his bail, creating a path for his freedom.
Last month, a Lebanese judge had ordered Gaddafi’s release on an $11 million bail with restrictions preventing him from leaving the country.
His lawyers argued that he could not afford the amount and sought permission for him to depart Lebanon. On Thursday, the court reduced the bail to 80 billion Lebanese pounds (roughly $900,000) and lifted the travel ban.
According to judicial and security sources, the bail was covered by a Libyan delegation.
Libya’s Justice Ministry, representing the Tripoli-based government, confirmed on social media that its delegation had paid the sum.
As part of the agreement, Gadhafi’s defense team withdrew a complaint filed in Geneva last month against the Lebanese state, which alleged that he was being held unlawfully without trial.
Libya had been pressing for his release since 2023, citing deteriorating health after Gadhafi went on a hunger strike to protest his prolonged detention.
Gadhafi was arrested in Lebanon in 2015 on suspicion of concealing information about the disappearance of prominent Shiite cleric Moussa al-Sadr, who vanished during a 1978 visit to Libya.
At the time of al-Sadr’s disappearance, Hannibal was not yet three years old.
Before his arrest, Gadhafi had been living in Syria with his Lebanese wife, Aline Skaf, and their children.
He was abducted in 2015 by Lebanese militants who demanded information about al-Sadr, then handed over to authorities in Baalbek and detained in Beirut, where he has remained since.
The fate of al-Sadr has long strained Lebanese-Libyan relations. While many in Lebanon presume the cleric is dead, his family insists he could still be alive in a Libyan prison.
Al-Sadr, who would be 96 today, founded a Shiite political and military movement that played a major role in Lebanon’s civil war, which erupted in 1975.
Moammar Gadhafi’s regime collapsed in 2011 after he was killed by opposition forces during Libya’s uprising-turned-civil war.
Hannibal, born nearly three years before al-Sadr’s disappearance, fled to Algeria with his family after his father’s fall, later settling in Syria under political asylum until his 2015 abduction.
The late Libyan leader had eight children, most of whom held influential roles in his regime.
His sons Muatassim, Saif al-Arab, and Khamis died during the uprising, while Saif al-Islam, once considered his successor, was released from detention in Libya in 2017.
Gaddafi’s daughter Aisha and son Mohammed currently reside in Oman, and another son, al-Saadi, a former footballer, was freed from a Libyan prison in 2021 and is reportedly living in Turkey.
