Lebanese authorities should immediately release the son of Libya's former leader Muammar Gaddafi, Hannibal Gaddafi, whom they have wrongly imprisoned for nearly a decade, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities should provide Gaddafi with appropriate compensation for holding him arbitrarily and investigate and hold to account those responsible for his ordeal.
Hannibal Gaddafi remains in long-term, arbitrary, pretrial detention since his arrest by Lebanon's Internal Security Forces in December 2015 on apparently unsubstantiated allegations that he was withholding information about the disappearance of Lebanese cleric Moussa al-Sadr, who was disappeared in Libya in 1978 along with two companions. Al-Sadr's fate remains a sensitive political issue in Lebanon. Judicial authorities have not taken any steps to bring Gaddafi to trial or provided a legal justification for his continued detention.
"Gaddafi's case is emblematic of a fractured judicial system that has lacked independence and is susceptible to political interference by Lebanon's powerful factions," said Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch. "Lebanese authorities should put an end to Gaddafi's near decade-long detention and release him immediately."
A Human Rights Watch researcher visited Gaddafi on August 12, 2025, at the General Directorate of Internal Security Forces' Information Branch Headquarters in Beirut, where he is being held. It was the first visit to Gaddafi by an international human rights organization while in Lebanese detention.
One of Gaddafi's lawyers, Nassib Chedid, who organized the visit, was present during the one-hour meeting, which took place in an office. No prison authorities or guards were present, but Human Rights Watch was unable to verify whether prison authorities were surveilling or electronically monitoring the meeting, and Gaddafi was aware that Human Rights Watch would publish the information he provided. Human Rights Watch had previously made inquiries about the case but received no response from the government.
The researcher did not tour the prison or visit Gaddafi's cell, which according to Gaddafi is a windowless but ventilated room underground. Gaddafi said he receives enough food and has been able to get basic health care but that he experiences "systemic weakness due to malnutrition and vitamin deficiency." He also said that he has suffered mental health consequences due to his long-term isolation in a cell below ground, without natural sunlight, and lack of regular access to his family.
Gaddafi said that his physical health has also deteriorated in recent years, including back pain, a broken nose, and severe head pain from a skull fracture he sustained while being tortured by the armed people who initially kidnapped him along the Syrian border in late 2015.
Prior to his detention, Gaddafi had been primarily living in Syria with his family after fleeing Libya in 2011, during the uprising against his father's government. But in 2015, armed men kidnapped Gaddafi in Syria near the Lebanese border after reportedly luring him to what he believed was a newspaper interview. Instead, the men transferred him to Lebanon, where they tortured him, demanded information on Sadr's disappearance, and demanded a ransom, one of Gaddafi's lawyers previously stated. Lebanese authorities freed Gaddafi from his captors but reportedly arrested him within days.
In December 2015, a Lebanese judicial investigator, Judge Zaher Hamadeh, issued an arrest warrant for Gaddafi, accusing him of concealing information about al-Sadr and his two companions' 1978 disappearance in Libya, when Hannibal was 2 years old. Hamadeh formally charged Gaddafi in 2016, accusing him of concealing information on the disappearance, according to two of his lawyers.
Gaddafi told Human Rights Watch that he has access to his legal team, including a French lawyer. But his wife and children were denied entry to Lebanon and deprived of contact with him for the first seven years after his arrest, until 2022, when authorities granted them access. Currently, family visits are permitted, but "heavily restricted," and there is "no regular or guaranteed schedule or access," Gaddafi said. Additionally, Gaddafi said that requests to access his legal team and family "are often denied, delayed for days, or ignored without justification."
Detention conditions in Lebanon are dismal. The prison system is severely overcrowded, with occupancy levels over 300 percent in some facilities, according to a 2024 report by the Beirut Bar Association's Prisons Committee. More than 80 percent of prisoners have yet to be sentenced, according to the same report.
Human Rights Watch wrote in April 2025 to Lebanon's Interior Minister Ahmed al-Hajjar, Justice Minister Adel Nassar, and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, requesting detailed information on Gaddafi's judicial status, and calling for his release. Human Rights Watch had previously written to the Lebanese Internal Security Forces director-general, Major General Imad Othman, and to Judge Zaher Hamadeh, the judicial investigator in charge of the case, in July 2023, requesting detailed information on Gaddafi's judicial status and health. Human Rights Watch did not receive a response to any of the letters.
Judge Zaher Hamadeh, who remains in charge of the case, has not acted upon calls to release Gaddafi despite repeated requests, most recently by one of his lawyers, Charbel Milad el-Khoury, on June 9.
The Lebanese justice minister and investigative judge should urgently respond to the release requests and end Gaddafi's continued unlawful detention, Human Rights Watch said.
In July, the justice minister of Libya's Government of National Unity reportedly accused Lebanese political officials of not cooperating on his case. In a response to a letter sent by Libyan authorities, Judge Hamadeh reportedly stated that any considerations about Hannibal's release should be predicated on Lebanon receiving information and the results of investigations by Libyan authorities into the disappearance of Imam Sadr. Gaddafi said that he has not been in contact with Libyan authorities or mediators.
The recent adoption by Lebanon's parliament of a law organizing the judiciary promises wide-ranging judicial reforms, yet unaddressed gaps continue to threaten the independence of the judiciary and make it susceptible to continued political interference, Human Rights Watch said.
Under international law, detention is subject to strict due process. Officials must inform the detained person about the reasons for their arrest, base detention on clear domestic law, promptly take the person before a judge, and charge or release them. Officials must provide regular judicial rulings on the legality of detention, respect the right to a speedy trial or release from detention, and provide regular opportunities to challenge the lawfulness of a long-term detention. Failure to respect such procedural safeguards makes a detention arbitrary. Under international law, pretrial detention should be the exception, not the rule.
Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Lebanon ratified in 1972, specifies that "[n]o one shall be deprived of his liberty except on such grounds and in accordance with such procedure as are established by law." Article 8 of Lebanon's Constitution states that "No one may be arrested, imprisoned, or kept in custody except according to the provisions of the law." Lebanon's penal code also prohibits arbitrary detention and stipulates prison terms for officials who do not comply with conditions for lawful detention.
"Gaddafi's unlawful detention needs to end," Kaiss said. "He and all other detainees and prisoners should be granted their rights in accordance with the law."
