The Gadhafi clan
“DANGER is still here,” says a rebel leader, as long as Gadhafi is on the run. AP File Photo
PARIS—Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi’s wife Safiya, two sons Mohammed and Hannibal, and daughter Aisha entered Algeria on Monday, the foreign ministry in Algiers said.
And Gadhafi and his sons Saadi and Seif al-Islam were reported to be in the town of Bani Walid south of Tripoli, Italian news agency ANSA said, citing “authoritative Libyan diplomatic sources”.
Here are penpix of the offspring, who disappeared along with their father after rebels overran the strongman’s Tripoli compound:
Mohammed Gadhafi: The eldest son
Born in 1970, Mohammed Gadhafi is the eldest son and the only child from Gadhafi’s first wife Fatiha al-Nuri, whom he divorced in 1970. A networker, very influential and discreet, he was head of the Libyan Olympic Committee and also the chairman of Libya’s General Post and Telecommunications Company. Rebels said they had captured him on August 21, but he then escaped.
Seif Al-Islam: The reformer turned hardliner
Often presented as his father’s successor, Seif al-Islam, born in 1972, is the second of Gadhafi’s eight children, the eldest son of his second wife Safiya Farkash. His name means sword of Islam.
Seif al-Islam, who received a doctorate from the London School of Economics, held no official position but carved out influence as a loyal emissary of the regime and as an architect of reform, anxious to normalize ties with the West.
He shot to prominence as a mediator in the negotiations that led to the 2007 release of Bulgarian nurses who were jailed as scapegoats for a hospital AIDS outbreak.
He also negotiated compensation agreements for the families of those who were killed in the Lockerbie bombing of 1988 and the bombing of UTA Flight 772 in 1989.
Seif al-Islam, who dropped his reformist image to become the face of the regime’s fight against the uprising, reappeared in Tripoli on August 23, just two days after reports he had been captured by the rebels.
Saadi Gadhafi: The footballer
Born in 1973, he was hired in 2003 to play for Italian first division club Perugia. Saadi barely kicked a ball when he was suspended for eight months after testing positive for nandrolone, an anabolic steroid.
As chairman of the Libyan Arab Foreign Investment Company, which holds a 7.5 percent stake in Juventus, Saadi hung up his boots in 2004 aged 34. He also spent time in the army, where he leads an elite unit.
Mutassim Gadhafi: National security adviser
Born in 1975, he was trained by Egyptian officers and is a career soldier and a doctor.
In 2007, his father promoted him to head of the National Security Council and in April 2009 he met US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington.
Suspected of attempting a coup, he was exiled to Egypt but was later pardoned and returned home. He was seen as Seif al-Islam’s main rival for the succession.
Aisha Gadhafi: Libya’s ‘Claudia Schiffer’
Born in 1977, she is a lawyer and chairwoman of welfare organization the Waatasemu Charity Association. In July 2007, she met the then wife of current French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Cecilia Sarkozy, in Tripoli.
She has been compared to the German-born supermodel for her style and long blonde hair.
In 2001 she accompanied her father to Iraq, where he met Saddam Hussein. She was also dispatched to the Philippines, where she negotiated the release of Western hostages with the Islamist Abu Sayyaf.
Hannibal Gadhafi: The police suspect
Born in 1978, Hannibal provoked diplomatic tensions with Switzerland when he and his wife Aline were arrested on July 15, 2008 in a luxury hotel in Geneva.
They were later released in return for half a million Swiss francs (436,000 euros, $629,000).
Tripoli demanded that no charges be brought and an “apology” after Hannibal was prosecuted for allegedly assaulting two former servants, a Tunisian and a Moroccan. In September 2008, the court dropped the case.
In France, he received a four-month suspended sentence and a 500-euro fine for assaulting his pregnant girlfriend.
Dubbed the “captain”, Hannibal spent time in the military and was in charge of the National Shipping Company.
Seif Al-Arab: Killed in NATO strike
Born in 1980, Seif Al-Arab was the most discreet of Gadhafi’s sons and was a simple army officer, trained in Germany and was close to his father. On April 30, 2011 he was killed, with three of the strongman’s grandchildren, in what was claimed to be a NATO air strike on a house in Tripoli.
Khamis Gadhafi: The feared commander
Born in 1983, Khamis is Gadhafi’s youngest son. Trained in Russia, he commands a battalion of army loyalists as well as well-trained and equipped mercenaries. He played a major role in the repression of the uprising in Benghazi in February, 2011.
The Italian news agency ANSA said Monday that Khamis had “almost certainly” been killed on the way from Tripoli to Bani Walid.
Gadhafi also adopted two children — a son, Milad Aboutztaia, who saved his father during an American raid on April 14, 1986, and a daughter Hannah, who died, aged 15 months, in the same raid.
