Seif el Islam el Gadaffi

Founder of the Gadaffi International Foundation for Charity Associations; President of the Libyan National Association for Drugs and Narcotics Control (DNAG)

Date of Birth: 25/06/1972

Commentary: Seif el Islam el Gadaffi is Colonel Moammar el Gadaffi's eldest son from his second marriage to Safiya Farkash el Barassi, Seif el Islam (Sword of Islam) has become the standard bearer of reform, styling himself the spokesman for Libyan youth. Observers say he is genuinely committed to liberalising human rights although, along with his siblings, he personifies the future of his family's rule over the Jamahiriya. In July 2002, he made a televised speech in which he said the regime needed to admit to the unlawful killing of dissidents in the past. Like many other of his projects, this initiative named the Gadaffi Call has not advanced. Seif has no formal role in the Jamahiriya. The Gadaffi International Charity and Development Organisation acts as a kind of safety valve for the human rights abuses committed by his father's regime.