By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Lebanese authorities on Monday freed Hannibal Gaddafi, son of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, after nearly a decade in prison, his lawyer, Laurent Bayon said.
“We left, he is free,” Bayon said hours after Gaddafi’s $900,000 bail was paid.
The younger Gaddafi, 49, was accused of withholding information about the 1978 disappearance of Lebanese Shia cleric Mussa Sadr in Libya, but never put on trial.
He was two years old at the time of Sadr’s disappearance.
“The bail was paid this morning,” Bayon said earlier on Monday. “Hannibal Gaddafi will finally be free. It’s the end of a nightmare for him that lasted 10 years.”
Heritage Times HT last month reported that a judge ordered Gaddafi’s release upon the payment of a bail bond of $11 million. It was last week reduced to $900,000 after an appeal by Libya authorities.
A Lebanese judicial source confirmed earlier on Monday that the bail was paid and said Gaddafi’s legal team had been completing release procedures.
Bayon said his client was set to leave Lebanon for an undisclosed destination, adding that he holds a Libyan passport.
“If Gaddafi was able to be arbitrarily detained in Lebanon for 10 years, it’s because the justice system was not independent,” Bayon said.
He said his client’s release reflected a restoration of judicial independence under Lebanon’s reformist government formed in January.
Lebanon blamed the disappearance of the cleric on the then Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi, who was overthrown and killed in a 2011 uprising.
Married to Lebanese model Aline Skaf, Hannibal Gaddafi fled to Syria after the start of the Libyan uprising.
He was kidnapped in December 2015 by armed men who took him to Lebanon, where authorities released him from the kidnappers and later detained him.
