All the dictator's children

Muammar Gadafy's eight children led lives ranging from security chief and UN goodwill ambassador to playboy and professional …

Muammar Gadafy's eight children led lives ranging from security chief and UN goodwill ambassador to playboy and professional footballer, often earning reputations for extravagance and violence to rival their father's. Below are details of Gadafy's children.

Believed dead:

Mo'tassim, once national security adviser, was killed on October 20th near Gadafy's last stronghold of Sirte. His body was put on display, naked from the waist up, and a doctor who examined it said he had apparently died after his father.

Khamis was reported killed at least three times during the conflict. However, a Syrian-based television station that supported Gadafy confirmed last month that he had been killed in fighting southeast of Tripoli on August 29th. He was wounded in a 1986 US bombing of Tripoli, but he still became commander of the 32nd Brigade, one of Libya's best equipped units, which played a leading role in Gadafy's effort to crush the revolt.

READ MORE

Saif al-Arab was killed in a Nato bombing raid on Tripoli. As a four-year-old, he was wounded in the 1986 air strike on his father's compound ordered by then US president Ronald Reagan. The spoilt son of an indulgent father, he studied in Germany and was reported to have been involved in a scuffle at a Munich nightclub. In US diplomatic cables, Saif al-Arab was said to have spent "much time partying".

Detained:

Saif al-Islam and several bodyguards, but no other senior figures from the ousted administration, was taken near the town of Obari by fighters based in the western mountain town of Zintan today, the interim justice minister said. They said the 39-year-old was not wounded.

Once seen as the acceptable face of the Libyan regime, Saif al-Islam, like his father, was wanted by the International Criminal Court at The Hague for crimes against humanity. English-speaking Saif al-Islam, who studied at the London School of Economics, had been considered a possible heir-apparent. His bellicose rhetoric during the rebellion forced Libyan analysts to rethink views that he was a reformer.

In exile:

Saadi fled to Niger. Earlier this month, Niger said he would remain in the West African country until a United Nations travel ban on him was lifted, despite Tripoli's request for his return.

Interpol has issued a "red notice" requesting member states arrest Saadi with a view to extradition if they find him on their territory.

Saadi had attempted to negotiate with Libya's National Transitional Council in late August after its fighters swept through Tripoli. He had a brief career as a professional in Italy's Serie A soccer league between 2003 and 2007, though he had little time on the field. He also had business dealings with Juventus, a club in which one of Libya's sovereign wealth funds owned a stake.

He played for the Libyan national team. Libya's former Italian coach, Francesco Scoglio, was quoted as saying he was fired for not picking Saadi to play.

A Libyan prosecutor said the NTC had approved a request for an investigation to be opened into Saadi's role in the murder of a Libyan soccer player in 2005.

Hannibal fled with Gadafy's wife and daughter, along with another son, Mohammed, to Algeria in August. An incident involving Hannibal in a Geneva hotel caused a diplomatic row with Switzerland.

In 2008 Swiss police arrested Hannibal and his pregnant wife on charges of mistreating two domestic employees. They were soon released and the charges dropped.

Within days, Libya withdrew millions of dollars from Swiss bank accounts and halted oil exports to Switzerland. In Libya, two Swiss expatriates were not allowed to leave the country for two years. Libyan officials said their case had nothing to do with Hannibal's arrest, but supporters of the businessmen said they were innocent victims of a Libyan vendetta against Switzerland.

Mohammed, Gadafy's son from his first marriage, was in the family group that fled to Algeria in August. A president of the Libyan Olympic Committee, he was also effectively in charge of the country's telephone network, which was used to eavesdrop on anti-Gadafy's activists and put them in jail.

Aisha, a lawyer by training, also fled to Algeria in August. She largely stayed out of politics but appeared at pro-Gadafy rallies in Libya after the uprising began.

Gadafy's daughter, in her mid-30s, ran a charitable foundation and in 2004 joined a team of lawyers defending former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. She said in an interview last year with a British newspaper: "I would say that now the future of Libya is very promising, bright and optimistic. It is taking its rightful place in the international community and everyone is seeking good ties with us."

Her glamorous image led some to describe her as the Claudia Schiffer of North Africa. Her role as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations did not survive the onset of the popular uprising in Libya in February.

Algerian sources said she gave birth to a daughter shortly after arriving in the country.