Gaddafi's son released from Lebanese prison after 10 years behind bars - Reports

BEIRUT - Hannibal Gaddafi, the son of former Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi, has been released from a Lebanese prison on bail after 10 years of imprisonment, Sputnik/RIA Novosti reported, citing the Lebanese national agency NNA.

Hannibal Gaddafi has been imprisoned on charges of concealing information in the case of the kidnapping and disappearance of Imam Musa Sadr and his two companions, the agency recalled.

According to the agency, the release became possible after his lawyers posted bail of US$893,000 and went to the General Directorate of General Security to settle his legal status - in the manner applied to all foreign detainees.

After all the formalities were completed, the decision to release him was handed over to the prison warden, and Hannibal Gaddafi was released, the agency notes.

One of Gaddafi's lawyers, Charbel al-Khoury, previously told RIA Novosti that the Lebanese judicial authorities must decide on lifting the travel ban on Gaddafi, which would allow him to leave the country freely immediately after his release.

In 2015, armed men kidnapped Hannibal Gaddafi in Syria near the Lebanese border by luring him into an ambush.

He was then transferred to Lebanon, where the authorities took him from the kidnappers, detained him, and handed him over to the internal security department.

The court issued an arrest warrant, accusing Gaddafi of concealing information about the disappearance of the Shiite spiritual leader Imam Musa Sadr in 1978 in Libya.

In 2016, Hannibal Gaddafi was officially charged, allegedly based on claims that he supposedly knew the whereabouts of Sadr between 1978 and 1982. Hannibal Gaddafi himself categorically denied these accusations. - BERNAMA-SPUTNIK/RIA NOVOSTI