Gadhafi’s son announces candidacy for president of Libya

The son and one-time heir apparent of late Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi announced Sunday his candidacy for the country’s presidential election next month, Libya’s election agency said.

The Associated Press reported Seif al-Islam, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity related to the 2011 uprising, submitted his candidacy papers in the southern town of Sabha, 650 kilometers south of the capital of Tripoli, the High National Elections Commission said in a statement.

Gadhafi’s son was captured by fighters in the town of Zintan late in 2011, the year when a popular uprising, backed by NATO, toppled his father after more than 40 years in power. Moammar Gadhafi was killed in October 2011 amid the ensuing fighting that would turn into a civil war.

In a video shared by an election official, Seif al-Islam addressed the camera, saying that God will decide the right path for the country’s future. The 49-year old, who earned a PhD at the London School of Economics, wore a traditional Libyan robe, turban and spectacles. It was the first time in years that he appeared in public, AP reported.

The second-born son to the longtime dictator, he was seen as the reformist face of the Gadhafi regime before the 2011 uprising. He was released in June 2017 after more than five years of detention.

This July, he told The New York Times in an exclusive interview that he was considering a run for the country’s top office. His candidacy is likely to stir controversy across the divided country.

Libya is set to hold presidential elections on December 24, after years of U.N.-led attempts to usher in a more democratic future and bring the country’s war to an end. Following the overthrow and killing of Gadhafi, oil-rich Libya spent most of the last decade split between rival governments — one based in the capital, Tripoli, and the other in the eastern part of the country.