Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, second son of the late deposed Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi, is said to have been freed under an amnesty, in a move which could fuel further instability, reports BBC. His father's preferred successor, he had been held by a militia in the town of Zintan for the past six years. The Abu Bakr al-Siddiq Battalion said he had been released on Friday but he has not been shown in public. A source has told the BBC he is in the Tobruk area of eastern Libya. His lawyer, Khaled al-Zaidi, also said he had been released but would not say which city Saif al-Islam had travelled to for security reasons. The Abu Bakr al-Siddiq Battalion said it was acting on a request from the "interim government". That government - based in the east of the country - had already offered amnesty to Saif al-Islam. However, he has been sentenced to death in absentia by a court in Tripoli, the west of the country, where control is in the hands of the rival, UN-backed Government of National Accord. Previous reports of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi's release proved to be false. He is wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity during his father's unsuccessful attempts to put down the rebellion.