In 2019, SNC-Lavalin, Canada's biggest engineering firm, pled guilty to paying Saadi $28 million in bribes to secure construction contracts in Libya.
In 2003, he signed for Italian Serie A team Perugia, employing Diego Maradona as his technical consultant and Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson as his personal trainer.
[14] He made only one substitute appearance against Juventus for Perugia[15] before failing a drug test, due to presence in his system of the illegal substance Nandrolone.
In 2006, Al-Saadi Gaddafi and the Jamahiriya government launched a project to create a semi-autonomous city similar to Hong Kong in Libya, stretching 40 km between Tripoli and the Tunisian border.
[19] In July 2010, Gaddafi was ordered by an Italian court to pay €392,000 to a luxurious Ligurian hotel for an unpaid bill dating back to a month-long stay in the summer of 2007.
[26][27] On 27 February 2011, Saadi was interviewed by Christiane Amanpour on ABC News, where he warned of imminent civil war and that if his father left Libya, the power vacuum would only lead to more chaos.
[30] On 15 March 2011, there were unconfirmed reports that a pilot by the name of Muhammad Mokhtar Osman had flown his jet into the Gaddafi stronghold of Bab al-Azizia in Tripoli damaging it and injuring him and his brother Khamis.
Speaking to BBC Panorama, a former Jamahiriya soldier claimed that Gaddafi had personally ordered to shoot unarmed protesters in Benghazi when visiting the city's army barracks at the beginning of the uprising.
Instead of using heavy infantry, tanks and armored cars – which could easily be distinguished from the Free Libyan Army and then destroyed by allied fighter jets – the fight against the rebels was pursued with small, fast and versatile units.
[43] On 10 February 2012, Saadi called into Al-Arabiya television by phone, where he claimed that he was in contact with Libyan tribes, militias, the NTC, the national army, and other members of the Gaddafi family from his hideout in Niger.
"[44] On 3 July 2012, the Washington Post reported that Saadi and his entourage had been dining out regularly at upscale restaurants and frequenting nightclubs in Niamey despite Niger's government claim that he was under house arrest.
It was also reported that the state guesthouse he was allegedly under house arrest in was in fact "a luxurious, high-walled mansion in one of the city's most affluent neighborhoods, near the U.S. and French embassies.
[48] In May 2015, Gaddafi appeared in a Tripoli court and was formally charged with unlawful imprisonment and murder for the 2005 killing of football player and coach Bashir al-Riani.
[49][50] In early August 2015, a video surfaced that appeared to show a blindfolded Gaddafi being forced to listen to other men allegedly being tortured in the next room.
[citation needed] International human rights groups and activists condemned the video, which appeared to have been recorded at al-Hadba prison in Tripoli, and was first released by Arabic network Clear News.
[6] "This is a shocking video that raises questions about conditions inside the prison," said Karim Khan, a British attorney who represents Libya's former Prime minister Baghdadi Mahmudi, who is also at al-Hadba.
[51] While under interrogation by Tajouri's militia, Saadi claimed that Mohammed bin Zayed, the de facto ruler of the UAE, was working on a plan to bring Saif al-Islam Gaddafi to power in order to "calm the situation down" in Libya.