Saif al-Islam, son of the late former Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi, sits after his capture, with his fingers wrapped in bandages and his legs covered with a blanket, at an undisclosed location, in this photograph aired on Free Libya TV on November 19, 2011. [Agencies]

OBARI, Libya - The chic black sweater and jeans were gone. So too the combat khaki T-shirt of his televised last stand in Tripoli. Designer stubble had become bushy black beard after months on the run.

But the rimless glasses, framing those piercing eyes above that straight fine nose, gave him away despite the flowing nomad robes held close across his face.

Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, doctor of the London School of Economics, was now a prisoner, bundled aboard an old Libyan air force transport plane near the oil-drilling outpost of Obari, deep in the Sahara desert.

The interim government's spokesman billed it as the "final act of the Libyan drama". But there would be no closing soliloquy from the lead player, scion of the dynasty that Muammar Gadhafi had once hoped might rule Africa.

A Reuters reporter aboard the flight approached the 39-year-old prisoner as he huddled on a bench at the rear of the growling, Soviet-era Antonov. The man who held court to the world's media earlier was now on a 90-minute flight bound for the town of Zintan near Tripoli.

He sat frowning, silent and seemingly lost in thought for part of the way, nursing his right hand, bandaged around the thumb and two fingers. At other times he chatted calmly with his captors and even posed for a picture.