Libyan civil war On 27 February 2011, Saadi was interviewed by
Christiane Amanpour on
ABC News, where he warned of imminent civil war and that if his father left Libya, the power vacuum would only lead to more chaos. He also stated that he was looking for a lawyer to fight the travel ban against him levied by
UN Security Council Resolution 1970. 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.
Flight to Niger On 11 September 2011, Gaddafi fled to
Niger with the help of his Australian bodyguard, Gary Peters, and was allowed entrance on humanitarian grounds. According to the government of Niger, they planned to detain Gaddafi while determining what to do with him. Peters had also been trying to assemble a team to smuggle Saadi to
Barbados or
Venezuela. On 29 September 2011, 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 7 December 2011, the Mexican Interior Secretary said that Mexican intelligence agents broke up a smuggling ring attempting to bring Gaddafi into Mexico under a false name. On 10 February 2012, Saadi called into
Al-Arabiya television by phone, where he claimed that he was in contact with Libyan tribes, militias, the
NTC, the national army, and other members of the Gaddafi family from his hideout in Niger. He also claimed that a large-scale Gaddafi loyalist uprising was imminent, that the NTC was not legitimate, and that he was ready to return to Libya "at any minute." On 3 July 2012, the
Washington Post reported that Saadi and his entourage had been dining out regularly at upscale restaurants and frequenting nightclubs in
Niamey despite Niger's government claim that he was under house arrest. It was also reported that the state guesthouse he was allegedly under house arrest in was in fact "a luxurious, high-walled mansion in one of the city's most affluent neighborhoods, near the U.S. and French embassies."
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". Later that month, Gaddafi gave an apology to the Libyan people from a Tripoli prison which was broadcast on Libyan state TV. He apologized for "all the harm I've caused and for disturbing the security and stability of Libya" and called for "those who carry weapons to hand over their weapons". He said he was being treated well in prison. 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 and coach
Bashir al-Riani. In early August 2015, a 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 [the] 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 have been recorded at al-Hadba prison in Tripoli, and was first released by Arabic network Clear News. While under interrogation by Tajouri's militia, Saadi claimed that
Mohammed bin Zayed, the
de facto ruler of the
UAE, was working on a plan to bring
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi to power in order to "calm the situation down" in Libya. 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. On 10 September 2021,
Moussa Ibrahim confirmed that Saadi was in Turkey and that Egypt and Saudi Arabia had also offered to host Saadi. It was claimed that Saadi's captors denied him the appropriate medical care. As of 2023, he was reported to reside in the Turkish city of Istanbul. == See also ==