Murdered son of Muammar Gaddafi was perceived as a threat to Libya’s elite

Saif al Islam Gaddafi, shot dead by gunmen on Tuesday, appealed to ‘a nostalgia for a past that is remembered as more secure’

The assassination of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the second son of Libya’s late dictator Muammar Gaddafi, is a reminder of both how violent Libya remains more than 15 years after his father’s demise – and how much Saif had come to be perceived as a threat to Libya’s governing elite.

The Gaddafi green movement remained a potent gathering point for some Libyans nostalgic for a return to imagined past security that Saif’s father symbolised.