Qadhafi’s son moves Media interests to London

Chris Forrester

Libyan President Qadhafi’s second son, Sayf-al-Islam al-Qadhafi,is moving to London along with his media and political interests. The report was carried by the BBC’s Monitoring service.

Sayf-al-Islam al-Qadhafi, via the Qadhafi Foundation, has donated £1.5m to the London School of Economics’ Centre for the Study of Global Governance.

Mr Al-Qadhafi is widely reported to be planning to launch a new satellite TV channel, a newspaper and an internet site called ‘Mediterranean’. They will all be based out of London. The report says that Mr Al-Qadhafi will base himself in London for the next 5 years.

However, the plans – especially for the satellite channel – are not without controversy. The "Allibiyah" satellite television channel, according to London-based Arabic newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat, is sponsored by the "Al-Ghad" company for media services that is owned by the Qadhafi Foundation, and which was “suddenly nationalized” last April. This move was seen as part of a conflict between Sayf-al-Islam and other public figures in Libya.