Human Rights Watch Calls on Lebanon to Free Qaddafi's Son

Human Rights Watch has urged Lebanese authorities to "immediately" release Hannibal Qaddafi, the son of the late Libyan leader, who has been held in pretrial detention for eight years on what the organization described as ludicrous and fabricated charges. The organization noted that nearly 80% of inmates in Lebanese prisons are in pretrial detention, with some held for many years without charges. According to one of Qaddafi's lawyers, Lebanese authorities accused Hannibal of "withholding information and later intervening in the ongoing kidnapping crime" of Imam Musa Sadr, despite the fact that Qaddafi was only two years old in 1978 and had not held any high official position by the time he reached adulthood. Human Rights Watch stated that Lebanese authorities have long exhausted any justification for continuing Qaddafi's detention and should drop the charges and release him.