The grandson of Omar al-Mukhtar says his illustrious forebear would be fighting with rebels against Muammar Gaddafi if he were alive today.
The grandson of Omar al-Mukhtar, the "Lion of the Desert" who led his warriors against Italian colonial rule and was executed in 1931, says his illustrious forebear would be fighting with rebels against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi if he were alive today.
"He was a fighter for the people. He is the spirit of the whole country," Awad al-Mukhtar told Reuters.
He was speaking after attending Friday prayers and an anti-Gaddafi rally in the rebel capital Benghazi, the city where his grandfather was brought in chains after his capture.
Omar al-Mukhtar is a revered national figure and a portrait of his bearded face adorns many of the rebels' posters and documents. He is particularly identified with the Benghazi region where he was born in 1858 and died at the hands of the Italians.
"Although he died 80 years ago, he is an enemy for Gaddafi," Awad said.
"Of course he would be fighting Gaddafi with us."
Al-Mukhtar brought together Libya's tribes and led them in a guerrilla war against Mussolini''s troops that lasted 10 years.
The Italian counter-insurgency campaign led by Marshal Rodolfo Graziani was a brutal affair, including depopulation tactics. An estimated 80,000 people are thought to have died in Italian concentration camps in the desert.
Still fighting at age 73, al-Mukhtar was captured in an ambush and brought to Benghazi. After a one-day show trial on September 15, 1931, he was hanged at the prison camp in Suluq, 55km (34 miles) south of Benghazi, in front of his detained followers.
A grainy black-and-white photo of him in Arab robes being brought to court while Italian officials in splendid uniforms gloat over him can be seen on the walls of many Benghazi establishments today.
His memory has presented a problem for Gaddafi, who has fostered his own personality cult during his 41-year-rule but could not entirely ignore a national hero. On a 2009 visit to Italy, he wore a picture showing al-Mukhtar's arrest.
Al-Mukhtar is also featured on the national 10 dinar banknote but Gaddafi claims the spot on the 50 dinar note.
"The 10 dinar is the people's banknote. I am sure Gaddafi regrets it now," Awad said.
A shrine to al-Mukhtar in a Benghazi square was removed by Gaddafi early in his rule and a mausoleum built at Suluq.
Residents point out the empty space in the square to a visitor with disgust.
"I am planning to bring it back," said Awad, a retired businessman now aged 69 who studied maths at Exeter University in England in the 1960s.
Gaddafi also sees himself as a Libyan patriot despite unleashing tanks, warplanes and artillery on towns to crush the uprising against him.
But, Awad said: "They are at opposite ends. One faithful, loyal and does not care about material things. Libyans believe in his ideology and respect him. The other is arrogant and he does not care about anyone but himself."
A 1981 film, The Lion of the Desert starring Anthony Quinn as Omar al-Mukhtar and Oliver Reed as Graziani depicts his struggle and is a popular item in video and DVD stores in Benghazi. "It's not bad," Awad said.
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