Ofure Akhigbe
Lebanon’s judicial authorities on Thursday lifted a travel ban and reduced bail for Hannibal Gaddafi, the son of late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, following a recent visit by a Libyan delegation to Beirut.
Hannibal Gaddafi, detained without trial since 2015, is accused of withholding information about the disappearance of revered Lebanese Shi’ite cleric Imam Musa al-Sadr, who went missing during a visit to Libya in 1978, while Muammar Gaddafi was in power. Hannibal, who was just two years old at the time, has denied any knowledge of the cleric’s fate.
In October 2025, a Lebanese judge ordered Hannibal Gaddafi’s release on $11 million bail but imposed a travel ban. His lawyers said he could not afford the amount and appealed for a reduction. The bail has now been cut to about $900,000, and once paid, Gaddafi will be permitted to leave Lebanon.
Judicial officials confirmed that Gaddafi plans to depart the country after his release, with his family expected to join him later.
Libya formally requested Hannibal Gaddafi’s release in 2023, citing his deteriorating health following a hunger strike to protest his prolonged detention without trial. Before his abduction by Lebanese militants in 2015, he had been living in exile in Syria with his Lebanese wife, Aline Skaf, and their children.
The disappearance of Imam al-Sadr remains a deeply sensitive issue in Lebanon. His family believes he may still be alive in a Libyan prison, though most Lebanese assume he is dead. The cleric, who would now be 96, was the founder of a Shiite political and military movement that played a major role in Lebanon’s civil war, which began in 1975.
Muammar Gaddafi, who ruled Libya for more than four decades, was killed by opposition fighters during the country’s 2011 uprising-turned-civil war, marking the end of his long and turbulent rule.