Ayesha Gaddafi

Ayesha Gaddafi (عائشة القذافي; born December 25, 1977), also known as Aisha Gaddafi, is a Libyan former mediator and military official, former UN Goodwill Ambassador, and lawyer by profession.

She is the fifth child and only biological daughter of former Libyan Leader Muammar Gaddafi from his second wife Safia Farkash.

Gaddafi was educated at the Paris Diderot University, and she studied law at the University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne.

She trained with the Libyan military, reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel.

In 2000 after sanctions were imposed on Iraq, she arrived in Baghdad with a delegation of 69 officials.

In 2000, Ayesha gave a speech at Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park, London in support of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, when questioned about her support for the IRA in 2010 she stated "I have always been a supporter of all liberation movements. Britain is Britain and Ireland is Ireland."

She also supported the Iraqi insurgents, stating "When you have an occupying army coming from abroad, raping your women and killing your own people, it is only legitimate that you fight them."

Shortly before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, she met with Saddam Hussein.

In July 2004, she joined the legal defence team of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Gaddafi is also the head of the charity Wa Attassimou, which defended Muntadhar al-Zaidi when he faced charges stemming from the shoe-hurling incident.

Ayesha Gaddafi was appointed as the United Nations Development Program National Goodwill Ambassador for Libya on 24 July 2009, primarily to address the issues of HIV/AIDS, poverty and women's rights in Libya, all of which are culturally sensitive topics in the country.

In 2011, she strongly denounced the policies of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.S. President Barack Obama, calling for a mediation of the Libyan Civil War through an international organization which would exclude them.

Ayesha has served as a mediator on behalf of the government with European Union corporations.

In February 2011 the United Nations stripped Ayesha of her role as a goodwill ambassador.

She was placed under a travel ban under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1970 from 26 February 2011 to 16 October 2023.

Gaddafi sued NATO over the bombing of a building in her father's compound which she alleged killed her brother, Saif al-Arab Gaddafi, and her own infant daughter.

She claimed that the attack was illegal because it targeted civilian buildings.

Gaddafi's lawyers filed the petitions in Brussels and Paris in June 2011.

However, on 27 July 2011, it was reported that Belgian prosecutors had declined to investigate the war crimes complaint filed by Gaddafi against NATO, stating that the courts of Belgium lacked jurisdiction to deal with the matter.

On 27 August 2011, it was reported by the Egyptian news agency Mena that Libyan rebel fighters had seen six armoured Mercedes-Benz sedans, possibly carrying top Gaddafi regime figures, cross the border at the south-western Libyan town of Ghadames towards Algeria, which at the time was denied by the Algerian authorities.

On 29 August, the Algerian government officially announced that Safia Farkash together with Ayesha and her brothers Muhammad and Hannibal (along with his wife Aline Skaf), had crossed into Algeria early on 29 August.

An Algerian Foreign Ministry official said all the people in the convoy were now in Algiers, and that all of them had been named in warrants issued by the International Criminal Court for possible war crimes charges.

Mourad Benmehidi, the Algerian permanent representative to the United Nations, later confirmed the details of the statement.

The family had arrived at a Sahara desert entry point, in a Mercedes and a bus at 8:45 a.m. local time.

The exact number of people in the party was unconfirmed, but there were “many children” and they did not include Colonel Gaddafi.

The group was allowed in on humanitarian grounds, because Ayesha was pregnant and near her term.

The Algerian government had since informed the head of the National Transitional Council.

Libya's rebels said sheltering Gaddafi family members was an act of aggression, and called for their extradition.

On 30 August 2011 it was announced that Ayesha had given birth to a girl in the city of Djanet.

They were reportedly being confined by the Algerian government to a villa in Staoueli near Algiers, and were being cut off from outside communications.

On 3 June 2012, through her lawyer Nick Kaufman, Ayesha Gaddafi also petitioned the judges of the International Criminal Court requesting that they order the prosecutor - Fatou Bensouda to disclose what steps she had taken to investigate the murder of her father and brother Mutassim Gaddafi.

This application was opposed by the prosecutor who stated that requiring her to disclose the requested information would intrude on prosecutorial independence and discretion and potentially impede the investigation itself.

As the Battle for Tripoli reached a climax in mid-August, the Gaddafi family were forced to abandon their fortified compound.

On 22 August, Libyan rebels captured her house in the Battle of Tripoli.

Among her possessions was a golden sofa shaped like a mermaid with the face of Ayesha, designed by an Egyptian artist.

In October 2012 she, along with two of her brothers and other family members, left Algeria to go to Oman, where they were granted political asylum.

She had been kicked out for repeatedly setting fire to her safe house in Algeria.

Ennahar newspaper reported that "she had blamed Algeria for her many problems."

The last straw was when she burned a portrait of the country's president Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

The EU amended their sanctions list in 2014, but did not include Ayesha, and rejected her requests to be removed from the list.