This is a BBC podcast. You can get all our podcasts and our terms of use at BBCWorldservice.com

slash podcasts. October 2011, the culmination of the Libyan Revolution.

I'm Gabriel Gatehouse and this is a sign of the Libyan revolution. I'm Gabriel Gatehouse and this is assignment on the BBC

World Service. Rebel fighters have caught Muamma Gaddafi hiding in a drainpipe on the outskirts of his hometown.

His death is both an end and a beginning.

The footage from that moment is disturbing to listen to let alone watch.

rebels film themselves as they tear into Gaddafi kicking and punching.

You can see him bleeding, pleading for his life in vain.

This was the moment that marked the end of the revolution.

I witnessed the chaotic celebrations that followed.

This is the man who says he cultured

Cedati.

And that the strong pistol is his personal handgun.

I'm struggling to make myself heard above the jubilant fighters.

They're passing a golden pistol between them like a totem, Colonel Gaddafi's personal handgun.

It's a symbol not only of their victory, but of a new era for Libya. Libya. I've always wondered what happened to those guys and what happened to that golden gun so I've come back to Libya now with a set of

photographs on my phone I've got one here you can see this guy showing me that

golden gun we're at the drain pipe where Colonel Gaddafi was caught.

I've got another picture here of this young chap in a New York Yankees baseball cap showing

me the same gun just moments earlier. And then our third guy is this extraordinary character, this power broker from Mizrata called Anwar Swan.

Before we head off on our search, I want to get a sense of the new Libya in the capital.

It's a cold wet and windy day on Martyrs Square in Central Tripoli.

...