Seif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, has been released by his captors, though he is wanted by the International Criminal Court for committing crimes against humanity during a 2011 uprising.
According to a statement released by the Abu Bakr al-Siddiq Battalion, Seif al-Islam Gaddafi was released on Friday, but the group gave no details on his whereabouts citing concerns over his safety, Deutsche Welle reported.
AP said Seif was apparently released by his captors as part of an amnesty law promulgated by the North African country's Parliament based in the east.
"We have decided to liberate Seif al-Islam Gaddafi. He is now free and has left the city of Zintan," the group's statement on Facebook read.
The group made a similar statement in July 2006, but it was later denied by the authorities in Zintan.
Seif, 44, was captured by the Battalion's fighters late in 2011, the year when a popular uprising toppled his father's 42-year-old government. Mass protests later plunged the oil-rich North African nation into a civil war in which rebels killed Muammar Gaddafi. Three of Gaddafi's seven sons were also murdered in the 2011 uprising.
In June 2011, ICC issued warrants for Seif al-Islam, his father and intelligence chief, Abdullah al-Senussi, for crimes against humanity in relation to the then administration's brutal measures to suppress the uprising.
Seif and eight other Gaddafi-era officials were sentenced to death by a Tripoli court in 2005.
Since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi's government in 2011, Libya has plunged into a civil war with rival groups setting up two governments and two parliaments. Each is backed by heavily armed former rebels.
The authorities in the east do not recognize the UN-backed Government of National Accord based in the capital, Tripoli.
