Libyan prosecutors said on Wednesday they were investigating the killing of Saif Al Islam Gaddafi, son of slain ruler Muammar Gaddafi, in the city of Zintan.
The 53-year-old was killed in the town Zintan, 136 kilometres southwest of the capital, Tripoli, according to Libyan's chief prosecutor's office.
The office said in a statement that an initial investigation found that Saif Al Islam was shot to death, but did not provide further details about the circumstances of his killing.
A lawyer of Saif Al Islam, Marcel Ceccaldi, told AFP he was killed by an unidentified "four-man commando" who stormed his house in Zintan on Tuesday.
Khaled Al Zaidi, a lawyer for Saif Al Islam, confirmed his death on Facebook, without providing details.
Abdullah Othman Abdurrahim, who represented Gaddafi in the UN-brokered political dialogue which aimed to resolve Libya's long-running conflict, also announced the death on Facebook.
Saif Al Islam's political team later released a statement saying that "four masked men" stormed his house and killed him in a "cowardly and treacherous assassination." The statement said that he clashed with the assailants, who closed the CCTV camera
The public prosecutor's office said forensic experts had been dispatched to Zintan in northwest Libya, where he was shot dead, adding that efforts were underway to identify suspects.
"The victim died from wounds by gunfire," the office said in a statement, adding that investigators were looking to "speak to witnesses and anyone who may be able to shed light on the incident."
Libya has struggled to recover from the chaos that erupted after a Nato-backed uprising in 2011 overthrew Muammar Gaddafi.
Libya remains divided between a UN-backed government based in Tripoli and an eastern administration backed by Khalifa Haftar.
Neither authority has commented on Saif Al Islam's death.
The only public reaction came from Moussa Al Kouni, vice-president of the Presidential Council representing the Fezzan region.
"No to political assassinations, no to achieving demands by force, and no to violence as a language or a means of expression," he wrote on X.
Born in June 1972 in Tripoli, Saif was the second-born son of Muammar Gaddafi. He studied for a Ph.D. at the London School of Economics and was seen as the reformist face of the Gaddafi regime.
Muammar Gaddafi was toppled in a Nato-backed popular uprising in 2011 after more than 40 years in power. He was killed in October 2011 amid the ensuing fighting that would turn into a civil war.
The country has since plunged into chaos and divided between rival armed groups and militias. Saif was captured by fighters in Zintan late in 2011 while attempting to flee to neighbouring Niger.
The fighters released him in June 2017 after one of Libya's rival governments granted him amnesty. He had since lived in Zintan.
A Libyan court convicted him of inciting violence and murdering protesters and sentenced him to death in absentia in 2015.
He was also wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity related to the 2011 uprising.
In November 2021, Saif announced his candidacy in the country's presidential election in a controversial move that was met with outcry from anti-Gaddafi political forces in western and eastern Libya.
The country's High National Elections Committee disqualified him, but the election wasn't held over disputes between rival administrations and armed groups that have ruled Libya since the bloody ouster of Muammar Gaddafi.
Agencies