Hannibal Gaddafi freed by Lebanese authorities

The information branch of Lebanon's Internal Security Forces has released Hannibal Gaddafi, the son of late Libyan dictator Mummar Gaddafi, who was handed over to them hours after he was kidnapped by an unknown group.

Lebanese police freed Hannibal on Saturday and were set to question him, a source told AFP, without specifying where he had been released.

Hannibal was reportedly travelling from Syria to Lebanon on Friday when he was kidnapped somewhere in eastern Lebanon's Bekaa valley.

Local media had earlier circulated footage from the kidnappers showing Hannibal talking about the circumstances in which he was kidnapped and the reasons, saying: "I am with people who fear God, a group that has a cause."

Gaddafi said that the kidnappers had demanded information about Moussa al-Sadr, the founder of the Lebanese Resistance Regiments - which later became known as the Amal Movement - a Shia-dominated Lebanese political party.

Amal blames the 1978 disappearance of Sadr on the Gaddafi regime. Conflicting reports about the Shia leader's fate had emerged in the past and some of it has indicated that the late Libyan dictator had ordered his killing.

Sadr was last seen in Italy boarding a plane bound for the Libyan capital Tripoli.

In the video - which has not been verified yet - Hannibal looks like he had been beaten up but he says that he is well.

"Anyone who has evidence about Sadr should present it. Enough injustice and suffering," Hannibal says in the video.

Hannibal is married to Lebanese model Aline Skaf, but his presence in Lebanon was not expected as he is considered to be a persona non grata in the country, particularly by the Shia community.

Security officials are studying the possibility that Hannibal was lured to Lebanon in order to kidnap him.