Dead for fifteen years, yet Gaddafi still shapes political debate in a divided Libya

Two days ago, on 20 October, Gaddafi’s supporters marked the fifteenth anniversary of his death. Killed and hurriedly buried in a secret grave whose location remains unknown to all but those who buried him, Gaddafi seems to have left behind a secret that the current order fears to reveal, as if his grave itself were a threat to the country’s disorder. Many Libyans believe that Gaddafi went to his grave taking the country with him. Denied the opportunity to give Gaddafi a proper public funeral, those who gathered for Saif al-Islam’s funeral came to mourn the son and, through him, the father. Killed in February this year, Saif left behind another unresolved question of political violence and accountability. Libya’s Public […]