Al-Saadi Gaddafi

Al-Saadi Muammar Gaddafi (الساعدي معمر القذافي; born 25 May 1973), is the third son of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. He is a Libyan former association football player. In 2011, he was the commander of Libya's Special Forces and was involved in the Libyan Civil War. An Interpol notice was issued against him in 2011. On 5 March 2014, he was arrested in Niger and extradited to Libya, where he faced murder charges, of which he was cleared in 2018. In August 2015, video surfaced allegedly showing Gaddafi being tortured.

Football career
Gaddafi is known for his participation in Libyan football, which was arranged in his favour. One law forbade announcing the name of any football player with the exception of Gaddafi. Only numbers of other players were announced. Referees favoured Gaddafi's club and security forces were used to silence protests.

On 6 June 2000, the BBC reported that Gaddafi had signed with Maltese champions Birkirkara F.C. and would play for them in the Champions League. The move failed to materialize. In 2003 he signed for Italian Serie A team Perugia, employing Diego Maradona as his technical consultant and Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson as his personal trainer. He made only one substitute appearance before failing a drug test. An article in la Repubblica said that "Even at twice his current speed he would still be twice as slow as slow itself."

He was also captain of the Libya national football team, captain of his home club in Tripoli, and president of the Libyan Football Federation.

Gaddafi joined UEFA Champions League qualifiers Udinese Calcio in 2005–06, playing only 10 minutes in an end-of-season league match against Cagliari Calcio.

He joined U.C. Sampdoria during season 2006–07, without playing a single match.

Business activities
In 2006, Al-Saadi Gaddafi and the Jamahiriya government launched a project to create a semi-autonomous city similar to Hong Kong in Libya, stretching 40 km between Tripoli and the Tunisian border. The proposed new city would become a high tech, banking, medical and educational center not requiring visas to enter. The city would have its own international airport and a major seaport. Gaddafi promised religious tolerance with both "synagogues and churches" and no discrimination in this new metropolis. The new city would have "Western-style" business laws that Saadi thought European and American companies would find welcoming and familiar.

Gaddafi used to take great interest in the affairs of many of Libya's other business interests like Tamoil, the oil refining and marketing company owned by the Libyan government, before the overthrow of the regime.

Italian lawsuit
In July 2010, Gaddafi was ordered by an Italian court to pay €392,000 to a luxurious Ligurian hotel for an unpaid bill dating back to a month-long stay in the summer of 2007.

Personal life
Gaddafi is married to the daughter of al-Khweildi al-Hmeidi, a Libyan military commander.

In 2009, a U.S. diplomatic cable called Gaddafi "the black sheep" of Muammar Gaddafi's family. It mentioned scuffles with European police, "abuse of drugs and alcohol, excessive partying" and "profligate affairs with women and men". Gaddafi's bisexuality had partly prompted the arrangement of his marriage to the commander's daughter, the cable said.

Libyan civil war
On 15 March 2011, there were unconfirmed reports that a pilot by the name of Muhammad Mokhtar Osman had flown his jet into the Gaddafi stronghold of Bab al-Azizia in Tripoli damaging it and injuring him and his brother Khamis.

Speaking to BBC Panorama, a former Jamahiriya soldier claimed that Gaddafi had personally ordered to shoot unarmed protesters in Benghazi when visiting the city's army barracks at the beginning of the uprising. Gaddafi confirmed that he had been at the barracks but denied giving orders to fire on protesters.

Gaddafi was reportedly the driving force behind a change in fighting tactics of the government's forces. Instead of using heavy infantry, tanks and armored cars – which could easily be distinguished from the Free Libyan Army and then destroyed by allied fighter jets – the fight against the rebels was pursued with small, fast and versatile units.

The rebels claimed that they captured him during the Battle of Tripoli, on 21 August, but later the claim turned out to be false.

On 24 August, Gaddafi contacted CNN, stating that he had the authority to negotiate on behalf of loyalist forces, and wished to discuss a ceasefire with U.S. and NATO authorities. A week later he contacted Al Arabiya, stating his father was ready to step down, and called for dialogue with the National Transitional Council.

On 5 September, Gaddafi said in an interview with CNN that an "aggressive" speech by his brother Saif al-Islam had led to the breakdown of talks between NTC forces and Gaddafi loyalists in Bani Walid, and said he had not seen his father in two months. Gaddafi also claimed a position of neutrality in the conflict and offered to mediate.

On 11 September, Gaddafi fled to Niger and was allowed entrance on humanitarian grounds. According to the government of Niger, they plan to detain Gaddafi while determining what to do with him. Gaddafi had also been trying to assemble a team to transport him to Barbados or Venezuela.

On 29 September, an Interpol red notice was issued for Gaddafi. Brigi Rafini, the prime minister of Niger said he would not allow Gaddafi to be extradited.

On 11 November, Niger's President Mahamadou Issoufou said his government had decided to grant Gaddafi asylum "on humanitarian grounds".

On 7 December, the Mexican interior secretary said that Mexican intelligence agents broke up a smuggling ring attempting to bring Gaddafi into Mexico under a false name.

Extradition and torture allegations
On 5 March 2014, Libya announced that Gaddafi had been extradited by Niger and was in Tripoli. His lawyer, Nick Kaufman, protested about the move stating "extradition suggests that this was a legal process where Saadi Gadhafi was accorded a lawyer, a court hearing, and…it's not even clear to me that that even took place".

In May 2015, Gaddafi appeared in a Tripoli court and was formally charged with unlawful imprisonment and murder for the 2005 killing of football player Bashir al-Riani.

In early August 2015, video surfaced that appeared to show a blindfolded Gaddafi being forced to listen to other men allegedly being tortured in the next room. Then the guards beat the man appearing to be Gaddafi on the feet as he screams, after asking him if preferred to be beaten on the feet or on his buttocks. "It does appear to be Saadi Gaddafi," one of his lawyers, Melinda Taylor, told RT. "He looks the same in sense [that] his head ... [had been] shaved which happened to him last year." No legal team appears to be present.

International human rights groups and activists condemned the video, which appeared to take place at al-Hadba prison in Tripoli, and was first released by Arabic network Clear News.

"This is a shocking video that raises questions about conditions inside the prison," said Karim Khan, a British attorney who represents Libya's former prime minister Baghdadi Mahmudi, who is also at al-Hadba. "The international community needs to demand a full investigation."

An appeals court on 3 April 2018 cleared Saadi from the charge of murdering the footballer Bashir. He was however fined 500 Libyan dinars and a suspended one-year prison term for drinking and possessing alcohol.