Hannibal Gaddafi, the youngest son of the deposed Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, has been released by Lebanon after nearly 10 years in detention without trial.
The Lebanese authorities seized Mr. Gaddafi, now 49, in 2015, accusing him of concealing information about the fate of a Lebanese Shia cleric who disappeared in Libya in 1978, when he was just two. Human rights groups had denounced the accusations.
His lawyer told the AFP news agency his $900,000 (£682,938) bail had been paid. Laurent Bayon expressed relief, stating: It's the end of a nightmare for him that lasted 10 years. In October, a judge set a $11m bail against Gaddafi's release but this was reduced last week after an appeal by his defense team, according to AFP.
Mr. Bayon indicated that his client would leave Lebanon for a confidential destination and criticized the lack of an independent justice system during Gaddafi's prolonged detention.
In 2015, Mr. Gaddafi was briefly abducted by an armed group in Lebanon before being freed, only to be detained again by Lebanese authorities. Following the overthrow and death of his father in 2011, he had fled to Syria and lived under house arrest in Oman with his wife Aline Skaf.
Before his father's regime fell, Hannibal Gaddafi was known for his lavish lifestyle. He has been at the center of a decades-long controversy regarding the disappearance of Shia cleric Musa al-Sadr, which remains a source of tension between Libya and Lebanon.
Hannibal Gaddafi was only two years old at the time of Sadr's disappearance and held no significant position in Libya as an adult.
