By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Hannibal Gadhafi, son of the late Libyan leader, Moammar Gadhafi has been granted bail by a court in Lebanon after ten years in detention, but with a condition that he must pay the sum of $11 million, a development his lawyer has denounced, vowing to challenge it.
Hannibal Gadhafi, whose bail condition was approved by a Lebanese judge on Friday has been in prison for a decade without being charged for any crime.
The bail was granted after his lawyers had argued that Hannibal Gadhafi has been ill in his cell at police headquarters in Lebanon’s capital, Beirut.
In 2023, Libyan authorities had made a formal application, requesting his release, citing his deteriorating health after he embarked on a hunger strike to protest his incarceration without trial.
On Friday, judicial officials said he was taken to the Justice Palace in Beirut, where Judge Zaher Hamadeh questioned him and later ordered his release once the money is paid.
Another condition for his release is that he must not travel outside Lebanon for two months after his release. He was later taken back to his cell.
According to judicial authorities in Lebanon, Gadhafi’s legal representatives had filed a case against the Lebanon before the International Court of Justice in Geneva over his prolonged detention without trial, adding that the case is expected to be discussed in Switzerland next month.
An Associate Press report quoted one of Gadhafi’s lawyers, Charbel Milad al-Khoury as saying that his client does not have the money and does not have access to accounts in order to pay the bail.
Al-Khoury added that Hannibal Gadhafi’s defence team plan to lodge an appeal on Monday over the $11 million bail and ask that it be set aside.
Gadhafi had been living in exile in Syria with his Lebanese wife, Aline Skaf, and children until he was abducted and brought to Lebanon.
He has faced questioning over the past years over the 1978 disappearance of Shiite cleric, Moussa al-Sadr, during a visit to Libya.
The case has been a long-standing sore point in Lebanon. The cleric’s family believes he may still be alive in a Libyan prison, though most Lebanese presume he is dead. He would be 96 years old.
His father, Moammar Gadhafi was killed by opposition fighters during Libya’s 2011 uprising-turned-civil war, ending his four-decade rule of the North African country.
