Gaddafi's son goes on hunger strike to protest being held without trial by Lebanon
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Since 2015, Hannibal Gaddafi has been in detention in Lebanon after being abducted from the adjacent country of Syria, where he was residing as a political refugee.
Son of late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who has been imprisoned in Lebanon for more than seven years, went on a hunger strike on Saturday in protest of his detention without charge, according to his attorney.
Since 2015, Hannibal Gaddafi has been in detention in Lebanon after being abducted from the adjacent country of Syria, where he was residing as a political refugee. He was kidnapped by Lebanese terrorists who wanted to know what happened to a Shiite cleric who vanished in Libya 45 years ago, as reported by the Associated Press.
Later, Gaddafi was captured by Lebanese authorities, who have been holding him without charge in a prison in Beirut.
The Associated Press was informed by attorney Paul Romanos that his client began his hunger strike on Saturday morning and that "he is serious and will continue with it until the end". Due to his lack of authorisation to speak to the media about the matter, Romanos avoided getting into specifics.
A statement from Gaddafi outlined his circumstances.
“How can a political prisoner be held without a fair trial all these years?” Gaddafi, who is married to a Lebanese woman, wrote in his statement.
Lebanon's problem point
The Libyan national stated that "those who are treating me unjustly" would bear responsibility for the outcomes now that he is on a hunger strike. The "time has come to liberate the law from the hands of politicians," he continued.
Romanos claimed that his client had back discomfort as a result of spending years imprisoned in a confined cell with no access to movement or exercise.
Tensions have been brewing between Lebanon and Libya ever since famous Shiite preacher Moussa Al Sadr vanished in 1978. Although the majority of Lebanese believe Al Sadr is dead, the cleric's family thinks he may still be alive in a jail in Libya. That makes him 94 years old.
In the protracted Lebanese civil war, which broke out in 1975 and mostly pitted Muslims against Christians, Al Sadr was the founder of a Shiite political and military organisation.
In order to fight for the rights of Shiites in the southern port city of Tyre, Al Sadr, who was born in the Iranian holy city of Qom, moved to Lebanon in 1959. Al Sadr established the Movement of the Deprived in 1974, one year before Lebanon's 15-year civil war began and attracted thousands of adherents.
The Lebanese Resistance Brigades, the militia's Arabic name, and the word "hope" are both used in the acronym Amal, which stands for the military wing he founded the year after. Amal later participated in the civil war in Lebanon.
Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament Nabih Berri is in charge of the organisation.
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Since Al Sadr vanished, Libya has insisted that the imam and his two travelling companions departed Tripoli in 1978 on a flight bound for Rome and has asserted that he was a victim of a power struggle among Shiites.
The majority of Al Sadr's supporters are certain that Muammar Gaddafi gave the order for Al Sadr to be executed due to a disagreement over Libyan payments to Lebanese militants.
The Libyan leader's four-decade hegemony over the nation of North Africa came to an end in 2011 when opposition militants assassinated him. Meanwhile, Al Sadr's destiny remains a mystery.
(With inputs from agencies)
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