TRIPOLI, Libya 

A Libyan court on Tuesday sentenced Saif al-Islam Gaddafi and seven other former Libyan leaders to death for corruption and abuse of power.

An appellate court sentenced Gaddafi, the son of former ruler Muammar Gaddafi, to death by firing squad. Former intelligence chief Abdullah Senussi and former Prime Minister Baghdadi Mahmudi likewise received the death penalty.

Saif al-Islam is currently being held by a rebel group in the town of Zintan in western Libya. The sentence against him, therefore, was delivered in absentia.

Saif al-Islam had become deeply involved in politics during the final years of his father's rule. While some critics accused him of planning to succeed Muammar Gaddafi, he consistently denied the allegations.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), for its part, said it was “deeply disturbed” by Tuesday’s court sentence.   

“We closely monitored [Saif al-Islam’s] detention and trial and found that international standards for a fair trial were not met,” the OHCHR said in a Tuesday statement.

Former Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki, for his part, denounced the death sentence handed down against Mahmudi, a Gaddafi-era prime minister. 

The three men were convicted of corruption, abuse of power and war crimes committed during Libya’s 2011 uprising that ended Muammar Gaddafi’s 33-year rule.