Western spies involved in killing of Gaddafi’s son – Afshin Rattansi (VIDEO)

The prospects “cannot be good” for Libya after the assassination of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the British journalist has said

The British and French intelligence services played a role in the assassination of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, British journalist Afshin Rattansi has said, citing sources.

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi was killed last week by four gunmen at his residence in the city of Zintan in northwestern Libya. The 53-year-old politician had intended to run for president of the North African country, which remains divided between rival governments and has been plagued by intermittent civil war since his father was deposed and murdered in a NATO-backed uprising in 2011.

Rattansi told RT on Sunday that after the assassination of Gaddafi’s eldest son, “sources immediately... told me that... indeed, it was [British military intelligence service] MI6 and a local proxy” that were behind it. “There were hints... that there was French involvement as well,” he added.

Read more

“With him dead, the prospects cannot be good” for Libya, Rattansi, whose show Going Underground airs exclusively on RT, stressed.

Muammar Gaddafi had been brought down by the West more than 15 years ago because “he wanted to de-dollarize for Africa, [and] create an African gold-based currency that would get rid of decades of International Monetary Fund, World Bank destruction of the lives of tens, hundreds of millions of people across Africa,” he said.

According to the journalist, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi “wanted to rejuvenate these ideas” and that is the reason why “the British and the French desperately did not want [him] to win the forthcoming election.”

The killing of Gaddafi’s son “is a really grim reminder of the continuing imperialist power of Western European countries that just want to keep Africa down, destroy it, so that the African people cannot benefit from their own resources whether it be in people, whether it be in minerals from the ground,” he stressed.

READ MORE: Gaddafi’s son assassinated

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said last week that Moscow “strongly condemn this crime” and expects that the assassination of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi will be thoroughly investigated, with those responsible brought to justice.