Hannibal Gadhafi's health alarming in Lebanon detention

The health of Hannibal Gadhafi, son of longtime Libyan ruler Moammar Gadhafi, is alarming and he should be released after nearly a decade of pre-trial detention in Lebanon, his lawyer said Wednesday.

Lebanese authorities arrested Gadhafi in 2015 and accused him of withholding information about the disappearance of revered Lebanese Shiite cleric Imam Moussa Sadr nearly four decades earlier.

Gadhafi, 49, was "urgently hospitalized" after experiencing "very strong abdominal pain," French lawyer Laurent Bayon told AFP, adding that his client also suffers from severe depression.

The doctor and judges "explained that this alarming state of health is linked to his isolation in relation to his detention, which has lasted 10 years," Bayon said.

Gadhafi returned to prison on Tuesday, but is expected to have frequent hospital visits, he added.

Gadhafi's lawyers have previously sounded the alarm about his health.

In August, Human Rights Watch urged Lebanon to immediately release Gadhafi, saying it had wrongly imprisoned him on "apparently unsubstantiated allegations that he was withholding information" about Sadr.

Sadr -- the founder of the Amal Movement -- went missing in 1978 during an official visit to Libya, along with an aide and a journalist.

Beirut blamed the disappearances on Moammar Gadhafi, who was overthrown and killed in a 2011 uprising, and ties between the two countries have been strained ever since.

Married to a Lebanese model, Hannibal Gadhafi had fled to Syria and was kidnapped in December 2015 by armed men who took him to Lebanon, where authorities ultimately arrested him.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who succeeded Sadr at the head of the Amal Movement, has accused Libya's new authorities of not cooperating on the issue of Sadr's disappearance, an accusation Libya denies.

Bayon called Gadhafi a "political detainee", adding: "The only reason that justifies his detention is that he bears his father's name."

He said the public prosecutor had made a recommendation to the examining judge, who must make the final decision on whether to release Gadhafi.

A Lebanese judicial source told AFP on condition of anonymity the public prosecutor "was not opposed" to releasing him.