Former Libyan oil chief’s body repatriated

The body of former Libyan oil chief, Shokir Ghanem, has been repatriated to Libya’s capital, Tripoli on Thursday.

Ghanem, former oil chief of Libyan strongman Muammar Qaddafi, fled Libya to Austria after defecting last year. His body was found floating in the Danube river in Vienna on Sunday.

Austrian police say investigations show no evidence of foul play in the death of former oil industry official.

“On Sunday morning at about 8:40 AM a passer-by found a dead body in the river, about 20 meters from the bank, here on the Danube, close to the Danube Island. Police were called immediately, they pulled out the body, and there was no hint of a third party's fault. Shortly after that he was identified as the former Prime Minister and oil minister of Libya,” Austrian police spokesman Roman Haslinger told members of the media on the shores of the Danube.

Vienna police said the corpse exhibited no signs of violence, there was no evidence of foul play or suicide.

However, Ghanem is thought to have enemies among Qaddafi’s opponents because of his time under power, and between Qaddafi’s friends and family following his decision to defect.

Ghanem, 69 when he died, had been chairman of Libya's state-owned National Oil Corporation (NOC) between 2006 and 2011, before defecting in March last year following the rise against the former Libyan leader Qaddafi.

He was wanted back in Libya for questioning as he was privy to potentially damaging information on oil deals with Western governments and oil firms.
During his period as NOC chairman, Ghanem has often visited Vienna for meetings representing Libya at OPEC meetings.

It was believed that Ghanem was living in Europe during his exile after his first appearance in Rome following his defection because of the “unbearable violence” used by Libyan government forces to stop the rebellion.