The room on the second floor was empty, not even a bed. The mullahs were sitting weakly on the mattress spread on the floor, his scalp and face and neck covered with red wounds and scabs, as if they were pieces of red mosaic.
Mullah, a 30-year-old Ethiopian woman, curled up on a mattress in a second-floor room of a beach house in Tripoli. Outside the window is the uproar of the 2011 Libyan opposition, who had just occupied the luxury home. When the soldiers pushed open the door, the abandoned nanny had been hiding here for many days, making a living on leftover canned food.
A wound on her head, still leaking, tells an unknown story. This is the mansion of Gaddafi’s fifth son, Hannibal, and the place where Maura worked for a year. Surprisingly, despite the wounds, she told reporters with gentle eyes and gentle tone about her encounters in this “Hell Villa.”
The disguise of destruction, the luxury truth of the noble family.
Gaddafi has always shown himself as a frugal image. He lives in tents, luxurious mansions, and goes out to ride camels without driving luxury cars. However, this disguise was completely torn apart when the opposition invaded Tripoli. It has been found that each of Gaddafi's children has an exclusive single-family villa, which is luxuriously decorated and well equipped.
Hannibal's villa, located on the beaches of Tripoli, is a typical representative of luxury. The villa is filled with champagne, gold-covered dining tools and crystal champagne cups can be seen everywhere, and Van Damme and Armani dressed with closets hanging up. A row of motorboats on the sea, dedicated to family entertainment.
The Gaddafi family holds Libya's oil revenue, suppresses the opposition with an iron fist, and lives a luxury life unimaginable to ordinary people. This extravagance is in stark contrast to the difficult life of ordinary Libyans.
Maura left Ethiopia a year ago and came to Libya for work, and she was fortunate to be chosen as a babysitter for Hannibal’s two children. At first, she was excited to be able to work in this noble family, believing that the salary was guaranteed and was envious of the beauty.
However, reality quickly shattered her illusions. After working for several months, she didn't get a penny of salary and didn't even dare to ask. The hostess, Irene, has a short temper and often abuses the mullahs. After six months of working, Irene burned Mulla's arm with a cigarette butt because of a trivial matter.
The real nightmare happened three months later.When Hannibal's little daughter cried no more, Maura could not grasp the child.Erin ordered Maura to beat the child to keep her silent, a request that was rejected by the good Maura.
This refusal completely angered Irene. She dragged the mullah into the bathroom, tied her hands and feet with ropes, and sealed her mouth with tape. Then, Irene took boiling water and poured it directly on the mullah's head.
"The mournful wailing sound was blocked by the tape, and the mullah felt his scalp had been burned." A person familiar with the matter described the tragedy at the time. After Irene finished torturing the Mullah, she left her to fend for herself.
Hannibal and Irene married in 2003, and they became internationally notorious. In 2008, the couple were arrested by Swiss authorities after beating and abusing employees at a luxury hotel in Geneva, Switzerland.
The incident sparked a diplomatic uproar between Libya and Switzerland.Gaddafi personally came under pressure and eventually the Swiss president had to personally apologize.
When the police arrived in 2009, Hannibal beat his wife Erin, smashed her nose, and bleed her mouth. This was not the first time Hannibal used violence against his wife, and when the two were still boyfriends, he beat Erin, who was eight months pregnant in Paris.
The Hannibal couples spend their days drinking abroad and wasting money. Private planes and luxury cruise ships are their standard for enjoying alcoholic beverages banned in Libya at top hotels. Hannibal has even been arrested by police for driving drunk on the streets of France.
Family privilege, Libya in the golden cage
Libya, under Gaddafi’s rule, is like a gold cage built on a well. Outside the cage, people mourn for hydroelectricity in the cage; inside the cage, the Kashgar family counts hundreds of billions of dollars, in London to buy the team, in the Paris hotel.
Gaddafi directly controls more than 140 tons of gold reserves at the Central Bank of Libya, worth $8 billion. His wife holds nearly 20 tons of gold in her hands. Each child controls an important economic sector in Libya: the eldest son Mohammed controls the telecommunications industry; My daughter Elsa manages the hotel industry and is also closely related to the energy and construction industries.
His third son Saadi did not hesitate to squander the national treasury in order to go to Serie A as a substitute player. As long as he plays, the opposing player will not dare to defend normally, for fear of annoying this giant Buddha. Saadi even beat referees for his team's loss and threatened opposing coaches with guns.
After the opposition invaded Tripoli, Hannibal's computer was seized, and the content inside was outrageous. These photos revealed the wicked lifestyle of the Gaddafi family, who ignored Islamic laws and took control of the wine in their own hands.
Some of the women in the computer are Hannibal's lovers, while others are "decorations" at Gaddafi's family banquets. The photographs became direct evidence of the corrupt life of the Gaddafi family and the final straw that crushed the dictatorship.
In contrast to the luxury of the Gaddafi family, the difficult lives of the average people in Libya have been sharply contrasted, with shortages of hospitals, shortages of books in schools, and strict censorship of people who have access to the internet, which led to the outbreak of the 2011 revolution.
Ending and reflection, good and evil will eventually pay off
After Gaddafi's fall, Hannibal fled to Algeria with his wife Irene and family to seek asylum. Mullah was finally rescued and taken to a hospital in Tripoli for treatment, and then transferred to Malta for further treatment.
When asked whether she wanted to return to Ethiopia, Maura said she was physically and emotionally unprepared, and she was almost completely devastated, not knowing how to face the eyes of her homeland.
Hannibal was kidnapped in Lebanon in 2015 and a Lebanese court issued an arrest warrant for seven years of detention pending prosecution. According to the report, Hannibal's health and psychological condition is going through a very difficult period. He refuses to talk to anyone or be examined by a doctor.
Irene first went to Algeria, then back to her hometown of Lebanon, and later to Damascus, Syria as a political refugee. In 2021, she caused trouble again by hitting a police officer with her car in road rage.
When the pyramids of the Gaddafi family collapsed, the family that once stood high eventually broke down. Some family members died, some were trapped, and some fled abroad like dogs.
Mullahs receive regular physical and psychological treatment, striving to overcome physical and psychological trauma. Facing the interview, she expressed a simple wish: she hoped that one day Irene would be arrested and charged.
On the streets of Tripoli, Gaddafi's family villas, once a symbol of privilege and oppression, are now empty. The photos found by the opposition on Hannibal's computer have become witnesses to the great pain of Libya society.