Hannibal Gaddafi, son of the former Libyan dictator, during a visit to Rome in 2011. (Credit: AFP)
BEIRUT — Hannibal Gaddafi, a son of fallen Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, detained without trial in Lebanon since 2015, has decided to start a new hunger strike to protest his ongoing detention, according to a statement from his family published Wednesday and obtained Thursday by L'Orient-Le Jour.
It is unclear whether Gaddafi has acted on his decision, which was made last week, as the only means, according to an informed source, "to advance his case."
He is going through Lebanese courts on charges of concealing information regarding the disappearance of Lebanese Shiite imam and Amal Movement founder Musa Sadr in September 1978 in Libya . Hannibal Gaddafi — who was only two years old at the time — has already been hospitalized twice following a hunger strike in June 2023. He was kidnapped at the Syrian border in 2015, then taken by the Internal Security Forces (ISF) during a raid by their intelligence services.
According to the family's statement, Gaddafi decided to start this new hunger strike after Lebanese authorities ignored requests from the Libyan Ministry of Justice calling for his release, which had sent a "memorandum" to this effect to the "Lebanese judicial authorities." The Libyan ministry had agreed to cooperate in the case of Musa Sader.
The family denounced the Lebanese authorities' move as an "arbitrary decision," saying it holds them "fully responsible, legally and humanely, for the health condition and physical integrity of Hannibal Gaddafi."
Sadr is seen as having been a cross-sectarian figure and holds an important place in Lebanese history. President Joseph Aoun, two weeks after his election, received relatives of the imam and promised them he would continue the work to shed light on his fate.
During the meeting, the president expressed his admiration for the former Shiite leader, "notably for his constant calls ... to keep Lebanon away from conflicts."