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Unexpected release of Muammar Gaddafi's son, Saif al-Islam

Wednesday, 14 June 2017 3:50 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 14 June 2017 3:51 AM ]

release of Muammar Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam

Unexpected release of Muammar Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam

Former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam has been freed by a Libyan militia group in the country's east after six years in captivity. The group calling itself Abu Bakr Sediq militia says Saif al-Islam was released under an amnesty law approved by the parliament in the eastern city of Tobruk. The decision to free Gaddafi's son is not valid in all of Libya as Tripoli’s UN-backed government still considers him a war criminal due to his role in a bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protests in the dying days of his father's rule. Meanwhile, a court sentenced him to death in absentia in 2015 over the matter. Saif al-Islam’s release has already provoked speculations on whether and how it could impact the current crisis in Libya.

Russia warns US against attacking Syrian-backed forces

A years-long deadly conflict which now seems to be the world’s most intractable crisis keeps devastating Syria. Political efforts aimed at resolving the war have at times reached a dead end. Among other reasons, the failure of efforts to find a solution to the Syrian crisis is mainly due to the Western governments and their regional allies’ insistence on the ouster of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad - a man whose government’s forces and their regional allies have been engaged in effective anti-terror operations for more than six years now. This may have provoked the US to widen its scope of intervention in the Syrian crisis and target the forces that are backed by Damascus. Russia has not remained silent toward this and has warned Washington against what appears to be a calculated move to tip the balance of the crisis in Syria in favor of the terrorists.

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