Gadhafi's Son Hannibal Briefly Abducted in Lebanon, Says Captors 'Loyal to al-Sadr Cause'
Hannibal Gadhafi, a 40-year-old son of slain Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, appeared in a video on Friday in which he announced that he had been kidnapped in Lebanon.
Both MTV and al-Jadeed television, which aired the video, said Gadhafi was abducted in Lebanon at the hands of an “armed group.”
In the video, Gadhafi said his captors are "loyal to the cause of Imam Moussa al-Sadr," the founder of Lebanon's AMAL Movement who disappeared while on a trip to Libya in 1978.
He said anyone who has information about al-Sadr should come forward.
Gadhafi appeared to have been beaten up and had black eyes but said in the video he is "in good health, happy and relaxed."
State-run National News Agency said Gadhafi was abducted Thursday in the Bekaa region and that his captors demanded "information about Imam Moussa al-Sadr and his two companions."
Later on Friday, the agency said Hannibal was “handed over to the Internal Security Forces Intelligence Branch after his captors left him on the Baalbek-Homs international highway near the northern Bekaa town of al-Jamaliyeh.”
It said he had been abducted on Thursday “after being lured from Syria into a town near Baalbek.”
Ex-MP Hassan Yaaqoub, the son of Sheikh Mohammed Yaaqoub who disappeared while accompanying al-Sadr, denied any ties to the kidnap operation.
He however hoped the reported abduction would “reactivate the case” and noted that he was not “saddened” by the news.
Hannibal is married to Lebanese lingerie model Aline Skaff.
Skaff had first met Hannibal in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Skeikh in 2000, her brother has said in an interview with An Nahar newspaper.
“They later met in France and got married in Copenhagen in 2003.”
The couple has a son and a daughter.
Photographs obtained by Agence France-Presse in Libya had revealed how Hannibal and his wife were living a high-flying party lifestyle during his father's iron-fisted rule.
In the dozens of photographs, found on a laptop belonging to Gadhafi's son and made available by former Libyan rebels to AFP, Hannibal and Aline are shown partying in European capitals, on a private jet and on a yacht off the Egyptian coast.
The undated photographs show the couple on luxurious trips to Paris, Rome and Sharm el-Sheikh. They are shown flying on a private jet, lounging in bathing suits on a luxury yacht and shopping in expensive boutiques.
The lavish lifestyles of Gadhafi's family and entourage helped fuel the anger in Libya that sparked the protests that led eventually to the former strongman's ouster.
Hannibal was among a group of family members -- including Gadhafi's wife Safiya, son Mohammed and daughter Aisha -- who escaped to neighboring Algeria after the fall of the Libyan capital Tripoli.
Y.R.
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