claimed that his client had been freed on 12 April of that year and transferred to a secret location after the government quashed his sentence, and that he would petition the ICC to drop all charges against him. His release was corroborated by Ejmi al-Atiri, but a Zintan military source denied that he had been released. In November 2016, the Middle East Eye reported that while Saif al-Islam was still officially a prisoner, he was free to travel around Zintan and frequently communicated through the Viber smartphone app. In May 2017, Saif al-Islam allegedly survived an assassination attempt in Zintan by local militias. Release and return to politics Speculations on whereabouts and political future On 10 June 2017, Saif al-Islam was released from prison in Zintan, according to a statement from Abu Bakr al-Siddiq Battalion. The militia chose not to transfer him to the custody of the International Criminal Court, saying "We are not concerned with the international tribunal as the ICC did not ask us to hand him over". The UN-backed Libyan government based in Tripoli condemned his release while an ICC prosecutor was still trying to verify the release, and called on Libya and other states to arrest and surrender him, stating "Libya is obliged to immediately arrest and surrender Mr Gaddafi [...] regardless of any purported amnesty law." Saif's lawyer, Karim Khan, could neither confirm nor deny Saif's freedom, but claimed that he was in regular contact with Saif and had previously visited him in the autumn of 2016. On 22 June 2017, rumors circulated among Gaddafi loyalists that Saif al-Islam would make a TV appearance on Qadr Night, but Saif did not show and his whereabouts remained unknown. He was rumored to be in Ubari with the pro-Gaddafi Tuareg commander, Ali Kanna. In August 2017, Libyan Herald refuted claim that he was ever in Ubari and reported that he was instead in the Wershefana region west of Tripoli. However, Wershefana sources denied this and claimed that he was in Bani Walid. Bani Walid sources claimed that Saif had asked to go there, but was rejected as some elders feared it would divide the community and risk attack. In October 2017, Ghassan Salamé, the head of United Nations Support Mission in Libya, asserted that Saif al-Islam might be allowed to take part in the political reconstruction of Libya. In December 2017, Saif allegedly claimed to a US