Hannibal Gaddafi, the youngest son of the deposed Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, has been released by Lebanon after nearly 10 years in detention without trial.
The Lebanese authorities seized Mr Gaddafi, now 49, in 2015, accusing him of concealing information about the fate of a Lebanese Shia cleric who disappeared in Libya in 1978, when he was just two. Human rights groups had denounced the accusations.
His lawyer told the AFP news agency his $900,000 (£682,938) bail had been paid. Laurent Bayon said: It's the end of a nightmare for him that lasted 10 years. In October, a judge set a $11m bail against Gaddafi's release but this was reduced last week after an appeal by his defense team, according to AFP.
Mr Bayon stated that his client would leave Lebanon for a confidential destination. He criticized the Lebanese justice system, noting that Gaddafi's prolonged detention indicated a lack of independence in the legal processes.
In 2015, Mr Gaddafi was briefly abducted by an armed group in Lebanon before being freed, only to be detained by Lebanese authorities shortly after. Following his father's overthrow and subsequent killing in 2011, he had fled to Syria and lived under house arrest in Oman with his wife.
Prior to his father's regime's downfall, Hannibal was known for his extravagant lifestyle. The contentious disappearance of Shia cleric Musa al-Sadr during Gaddafi's early years has continued to strain ties between Libya and Lebanon for decades. Hannibal Gaddafi, having held no senior position in Libya as an adult, was just a child at the time of the cleric's disappearance.
}
