Lebanon Lifts Travel Ban and Cuts Bail to ~$900K — Hannibal Gadhafi Poised to Leave After Decade in Custody

Lebanon Lifts Travel Ban and Reduces Bail for Hannibal Gadhafi

Beirut — Lebanese judicial authorities have lifted a travel ban and reduced the bail for Hannibal Gadhafi, the son of the late Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi, clearing the way for his release, judicial officials and one of his lawyers said on Thursday.

The decision follows recent talks in Beirut with a Libyan delegation that officials said made progress toward securing Hannibal Gadhafi’s freedom. In mid-October, a Lebanese judge ordered his release on $11 million bail but simultaneously barred him from leaving the country. His lawyers said he lacked the funds to meet that amount and sought permission for him to travel.

On Thursday, three judicial officials and one security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, told reporters the bail was lowered to 80 billion Lebanese pounds — roughly $900,000 — and the travel ban was lifted. Once that reduced bond is posted, Gadhafi will be permitted to leave Lebanon, the officials said.

“We have just been informed and will discuss the matter,” defence lawyer Charbel Milad al-Khoury told The Associated Press, confirming the legal team was reviewing the latest judicial action.

Lebanese authorities have held Hannibal Gadhafi since 2015 without bringing him to trial. He is accused of withholding information about the fate of Lebanese Shiite cleric Moussa al-Sadr, who disappeared during a visit to Libya in 1978 — a time when Hannibal was less than three years old.

Libyan officials formally requested Hannibal Gadhafi’s release in 2023, raising concerns about his health after he staged a hunger strike to protest prolonged detention without trial. Before his abduction in 2015, Gadhafi had been living in exile in Syria with his Lebanese wife, Aline Skaf, and their children. Lebanese militants who sought information about al-Sadr seized him and brought him to Lebanon, authorities said.

Lebanese police later reported taking Gadhafi from the northeastern city of Baalbek. He has been held in a Beirut jail since then, where investigators have questioned him about al-Sadr’s disappearance.

The case remains a sensitive and polarizing issue in Lebanon. Al-Sadr’s family has long hoped he may still be alive in Libya, though most Lebanese presume he died after his 1978 disappearance. Al-Sadr — who went missing alongside companions Abbas Badreddine and Mohammed Yacoub — founded a Shiite political movement that became influential during the Lebanese civil war.

Muammar Gadhafi was killed by opposition fighters during Libya’s 2011 uprising, ending his four-decade rule.