Al-Saadi Qaddafi
Al-Saadi QaddafiREUTERS/Ismail Zitouny/File Photo

Libyan authorities on Sunday released one of former ruler Muammar Qaddafi’s sons after more than seven years of detention in the capital of Tripoli, The Associated Press reported.

Prime Minister-designate Abdul Hamid Dbeibah said that al-Saadi Qaddafi had been released in compliance with a previous court order.

Mohamed Hamouda, a spokesman for the transitional government, said the son walked free from Tripoli's al-Hadaba prison, where many Qaddafi regime officials are being held pending trial. Hamouda did not elaborate on the circumstances of his release.

Al-Saadi Qaddafi was extradited from neighboring Niger in March of 2014 and had been in jail since.

Local media reported that he was released after he was acquitted on charges dating back to the uprising against his father’s rule. Following his release, he traveled to Turkey, according to the al-Marsad news website.

At the time of the 2011 revolt against his father, al-Saadi Qaddafi headed a special forces brigade that was involved in the crackdown on protesters and rebels.

He was smuggled across the desert to Niger in 2011 just as his father’s regime was crumbling. He was extradited in March 2014 after he, as well as colleagues who accompanied him, "failed to respect the conditions of his stay in Niger," the West African nation’s government said at the time.

Muammar Qaddafi was killed in October of 2011, as he was fleeing his hometown of Sirte.

The dictator had eight children, most of whom played significant roles in his regime. His son Muatassim was killed at the same time Qaddafi was captured and slain. Two other sons, Seif al-Arab and Khamis, were killed earlier in the uprising.

Another son, Seif al-Islam, was released by a militia in the town of Zintan in 2017, after he had been held there for six years. Another son, Hannibal, is reportedly detained in Lebanon.