Gadhafi’s son goes on starvation strike in Lebanon to protest detention with out trial

A son of Libya’s late chief Moammar Gadhafi, who has been held in Lebanon for greater than seven years, started a starvation strike Saturday to protest his detention with out trial, his lawyer mentioned.

Hannibal Gadhafi has been held in Lebanon since 2015 after he was kidnapped from neighboring Syria the place he had been residing as a political refugee. He was kidnapped by Lebanese militants demanding details about the destiny of a Shiite cleric who went lacking in Libya 45 years in the past.

Gadhafi was later taken by Lebanese authorities and has been held in a Beirut jail with out trial.

Attorney Paul Romanos advised The Associated Press that his consumer began the starvation strike Saturday morning and “he is serious and will continue with it until the end.” Romanos didn’t go into particulars of the case as he was not licensed to talk about it to the media.

Gadhafi issued a press release describing his circumstances.

“How can a political prisoner be held without a fair trial all these years?” Gadhafi, who’s married to a Lebanese girl, wrote in his assertion.

The Libyan citizen added that now that he’s on starvation strike, “those who are treating me unjustly” shall be answerable for the outcomes. He added that “the time has come to liberate the law from the hands of politicians.”

Romanos mentioned his consumer suffers from again ache as a result of being held in a small cell for years with out with the ability to transfer or train.

The disappearance of outstanding Lebanese Shiite cleric Moussa al-Sadr in 1978 has been a long-standing sore level in Lebanon. The cleric’s household believes he should still be alive in a Libyan jail, although most Lebanese presume al-Sadr is useless. He can be 94 years outdated.

Al-Sadr was the founding father of a Shiite political and navy group that took half within the prolonged Lebanese civil conflict that started in 1975, largely pitting Muslims towards Christians.

Born within the Iranian holy metropolis of Qom, al-Sadr got here to Lebanon in 1959 to work for the rights of Shiites within the southern port city of Tyre. In 1974, a yr earlier than Lebanon’s 15-year civil conflict broke out, al-Sadr based the Movement of the Deprived, attracting hundreds of followers.

The following yr, he established the navy wing Amal – Arabic for “hope” and an acronym for the militia’s Arabic title, the Lebanese Resistance Brigades – which later fought in Lebanon’s civil conflict. The group is headed by Lebanon’s highly effective Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.

Since al-Sadr’s disappearance, Libya has maintained that the cleric and his two touring companions left Tripoli in 1978 on a flight to Rome and urged he was a sufferer of an influence wrestle amongst Shiites.

Most of al-Sadr’s followers are satisfied that Moammar Gadhafi ordered al-Sadr killed in a dispute over Libyan funds to Lebanese militias.

The Libyan chief was killed by opposition fighters in 2011, ending his four-decade rule of the north African nation. Even after his dying, al-Sadr’s destiny continues to be unknown.