Hannibal Gaddafi's lawyer confirmed to Alwasat on Saturday that his client who has been detained in Lebanon for more than seven years began a hunger strike to protest his detention without trial.

Attorney Paul Romanos told Alwasat from Beirut: “Hannibal suffers from poor health conditions that are constantly deteriorating,” calling on “all parties concerned with achieving justice, including the Libyan state, to shoulder their responsibility for the release of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s son as a Libyan citizen.”

The Lebanese lawyer stated that Hannibal notified his defense team Saturday morning of the decision to go on hunger strike, denying that the team of lawyers knew of his intention to take this decision.

He also indicated that his client suffers from back pain because he was held in a small cell for years without being able to move or exercise and underwent X-rays to prove this.

A statement from Hannibal Gaddafi earlier asked, "How is it possible in a country of law and freedoms to ignore the flagrant violation of the Charter of Human Rights? How is it possible to leave a political prisoner without a fair trial for all these years?”.

Hannibal's Detention in Lebanon

Colonel Gaddafi's son was kidnapped in Syria eight years ago and transferred to Lebanon by an armed group demanding information about the disappearance of Imam Musa al-Sadr in 1978, but was later released.

An arrest warrant was then issued against him by the Lebanese government over the disappearance of al-Sadr and he was arrested. 

A request by the Syrian government to return Gaddafi on the grounds that he was a political refugee was denied by the Lebanese government as he is a wanted man in Lebanon for withholding information regarding the disappearance of al-Sadr.

In August 2016, al-Sadr's family filed a lawsuit against Gaddafi over his role in the disappearance of the Imam despite the fact that Sadr's disappearance in 1978 occurred when Hannibal was two years old.

In 2019, Russia, which developed close ties with Hannibal's older brother Saif al-Islam allegedly pushed for Hannibal's release and offered him asylum in Moscow.

While Hannibal is being detained in Lebanon, his wife Aline Skaf lives in Syrian capital Damascus.