Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi

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Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi (Arabic: سيف الإسلام القذافي, translation: sword of Islam‎) (born June 5, 1972) is a son of Muammar al-Gaddafi, leader of Libya.

Saif graduated from IMADEC University and from the London School of Economics. Today he heads the official charity, the Gaddafi International Foundation for Charity Associations, which has intervened in various hostage situations involving Islamic militants and the crisis of the HIV trial in Libya and the resulting European Union-Libyan rapprochement.

Saif also performs in public relations and diplomatic roles for his father. He has been mentioned as a possible successor, though he has denied this, claiming that Libya's future lies in direct democracy.

On December 10, 2004, shortly before a trip by Canadian prime minister Paul Martin to Tripoli, Saif requested in an interview with The Globe and Mail a formal apology from the Canadian government, for joining U.S.-led sanctions against Libya after the Lockerbie bombing, and for denying him a student visa to study in Canada in 1997. His request was met with incredulity in Canada, and the Canadian government announced that no apology would be forthcoming.

Saif also introduced the Isratine proposal to permanently resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through a secular, federalist, republican one-state solution.

Interviewed by French newspaper Le Figaro on December 7, 2007, Saif said that the seven Libyans convicted for the Pan Am Flight 103 and the UTA Flight 772 bombings "are innocent". When asked if Libya would therefore seek reimbursement of the compensation paid to the families of the victims ($2.33 billion), Saif replied: "I don't know."^[1]

Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi has been romantically linked to the Israeli actress Orly Weinerman.