Shokri Ghanem, Libya’s former top oil executive who defected to the rebels last June, was found dead in the Danube river in Vienna, Austrian police said.
Ghanem’s corpse was found floating in the river early yesterday, said Roman Hahslinger, a spokesman for the Vienna police. The cause of death was not clear and an autopsy will be carried out, he said. The corpse was clothed and showed no signs of interference.
Ghanem was not carrying any form of identification save a document naming the company for whom he was working, the spokesman said. Ghanem previously was chairman of the Libya’s state-run National Oil Corporation. He left the Gadafy regime about four months after the uprising in February 2011.
Ghanem said in February that he was living in Austria where he was working as a consultant and that he would like to return to Libya. – (Bloomberg)