Gaddafi’s son Saif doubles down on Sarkozy funding claim, alleges pressure to retract

Benjamin DODMAN

22 January 2025 at 0:40 pm·1-min read

Muammar Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam (top left) gestures to troops loyal to his father in Tripoli in August 2011, months before the late dictator's fall.

Muammar Gaddafi’s former heir apparent has told FRANCE 24’s sister radio RFI that he was personally involved in giving Nicolas Sarkozy suitcases of cash ahead of his victorious 2007 presidential run. Saif al-Islam claims he was pressured to change his testimony by emissaries of the former French president, who is on trial over alleged campaign financing by Libya.

Once seen as the respectable, media-friendly face of the Gaddafi regime, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the late Libyan dictator’s second son, has been an elusive figure since his father’s fall in 2011, held for years by a rebel group in a mountainous region southwest of Tripoli, before suddenly resurfacing to launch a short-lived presidential run.

In the chaotic 14 years since Gaddafi’s death, Saif al-Islam has spoken just once before with a foreign journalist, weeks before announcing his shot at the presidency in 2021. His written exchanges in Arabic with RFI’s Houda Ibrahim mark the first time he has agreed to touch on the Libyan funding allegations that have dogged Nicolas Sarkozy ever since Gaddafi’s demise.

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