Saif Gaddafi's London home taken by squatters

GlobalPost

The apparent London home of Saif Gaddafi, the son of defiant Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, has been taken over by a protest group, ABC News reports.

A group calling itself Topple the Tyrants has seized the multi-million dollar home in London's exclusive Hampstead Garden Suburb district. They have put a banner on the roof reading, "Out of Libya, Out of London."

"Today we have occupied the mansion of Saif al-Islam in solidarity ... with the people who are fighting and dying in Libya," a group spokesman told reports outside the house, according to ABC News.

"We don't trust the British government to properly seize the Gaddafi regime's stolen assets, so we decided to take the matter into our own hands. Our aim is to make sure that the assets stolen from the Libyan people are returned to the Libyan people and not hidden away in some foreign bank account."

Unrest has gripped Libya for the past three weeks as rebels and pro-government forces battle for control over the country.

Protesters told the Guardian that the house was managed by Gaddafi through a holding company registered in the British Cayman Islands and that they had been told of the home's location anonymously.

A spokesman, Montgomery Jones, said the group would stay in the house until it was returned to the Libyan people.

The home has eight bedrooms, a swimming pool and sauna and was put on the market by Gaddafi for more than 10 million pounds, the Telegraph reports. It was then withdrawn from sale.

-- Hanna Ingber Win


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