Hannibal Gaddafi, son of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, in 2005. (Credit: MORTEN JUHL/AFP/Getty Images/File photo)
A son of the late Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi is being treated in a hospital in Lebanon. This comes after he went on hunger strike two weeks ago to protest his incarceration without trial since 2015, the Lebanese interior minister said on Thursday.
Hannibal Gaddafi has been detained in Lebanon since a prosecutor charged him with concealing information about the fate of Imam Musa al-Sadr, a Lebanese Shi'ite Muslim cleric who disappeared while on a trip to Libya in 1978.
Declaring his decision to go on hunger strike earlier this month, Hannibal Gaddafi, who was two years old at the time of Sadr's disappearance, said he was a victim of injustice and stood accused of something he did not do.
Lebanese Shi'ites have long held the Gaddafi government, which was toppled in 2011, responsible for Sadr's disappearance. They believe the Libyan government kidnapped the Imam during the trip.
Hannibal Gaddafi was hospitalized Wednesday after personnel felt his condition had deteriorated, Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi told Reuters.
Reem al-Dabri, a Gaddafi representative, noted his young age at the time of Sadr's disappearance and said he had nothing to do with the matter, calling him "a political hostage for undeclared reasons."
Hannibal Gaddafi fled Libya in 2011 when the uprising raged against his father's rule. He made his way to Syria, from where Dabri said he was abducted and brought to Lebanon in 2015.
Muammar Gaddafi was captured and killed by rebels in 2011.
Sadr, who Libya said left the country safely, is widely believed to have been killed.
Sadr founded the Shi'ite Amal Movement, which alongside Hezbollah, dominates Lebanese Shi'ite politics and has been led since 1980 by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.
