TRIPOLI – Libya had sought to question Muammar Gadafy’s former oil boss in a corruption investigation before his body was found in the river Danube in Austria this week, prosecutor general Abdelaziz al-Hasadi said yesterday.
He declined to discuss specifics of the investigation involving Shokri Ghanem, who as head of the National Oil Corporation (NOC) ran the Libyan oil industry for years before defecting a year ago, amid the uprising that toppled Gadafy, and moving to Vienna.
His role made Ghanem, a former premier who was also close to Gadafy’s son Saif al-Islam, privy to potentially damaging information, including on oil deals with western governments and oil companies.
Mr Hasadi would not confirm whether the investigation was related to Mr Ghanem’s tenure atop the NOC from 2006. Libya “issued a warrant to bring him in. They only asked him to provide certain information, but this warrant is inactive on the international level,” he said, adding that such a warrant did not necessarily mean that Mr Ghanem was to be arrested. – (Reuters)