By Najia Houssari – arabnews.com — BEIRUT: The health of Hannibal Qaddafi, the 47-year-old son of the late Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, was in decline, his legal representative said on Monday. Lawyer Paul Romanos reported that hunger striker Qaddafi, who was moved from a Lebanese prison to hospital on Sunday night, had been treated for low blood sugar levels before being returned to detention. He started refusing food last month in protest over his incarceration without trial since 2015. A security source said Qaddafi had been periodically monitored by medical professionals since the start of his “open and continuous hunger strike.” His brother, Saif Al-Islam, had earlier warned of the “seriousness of the health situation.”

BACKGROUND

On June 9, the media office of Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati denied rumors circulating on social media that Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah had contacted Mikati regarding the Hannibal Qaddafi case. He described his sibling’s detention in Lebanon as “illegal and inhumane,” adding that he was being held “without trial and without just cause.” Qaddafi had been living with his family in Syria as a political refugee following his father’s overthrow in Libya. In 2015, he was abducted in Lebanon by an unknown armed group after being lured there and has since been kept in solitary confinement.

The Lebanese judiciary charged him with “hiding information about the fate of Imam Musa Al-Sadr and his companions Sheikh Mohammed Yaacoub and journalist Abbas Badreddine and participating in the crime of their disappearance.” The three men vanished in the Libyan capital Tripoli in 1978 after being invited there by Muammar Qaddafi. But the former leader’s son claims he had nothing to do with Al-Sadr’s disappearance and was aged only three at the time. Qaddafi also claimed during his interrogation that only his older brother Saif Al-Islam, former Prime Minister Abdul Salam Jalloud, his father’s relative Ahmed Gaddaf Al-Dam, who lives in Cairo, and former Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa have knowledge about the disappearance of Al-Sadr.

In a statement announcing the start of his hunger strike, Qaddafi said: “After the continued abuse against me without any accountability and the deafness of those entrusted with protecting human rights and the throwing of their legitimacy into the wind, I declare my hunger strike and hold all those involved in the continued injustice against me responsible for the consequences. “It is time to liberate the law from the hands of politicians.” On June 9, the media office of Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati denied rumors circulating on social media that Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah had contacted Mikati regarding the Qaddafi case. It added that Mikati had not received any calls from any Libyan party and that the Qaddafi case was being handled by the judiciary. Mikati noted Lebanon’s keenness on maintaining good relations with the Libyan people.

Al-Sadr, a pro-reform political thinker, was the founder of the Amal Movement, a Shiite political organization in Lebanon currently led by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri. The movement has continued to highlight Al-Sadr’s case through an annual festival held at the end of August to coincide with the anniversary of his disappearance.