Interpol issued an international request to arrest Libya's ex-oil minister Shokri Ghanem in connection with an anti-corruption investigation in his home country, days before his body was found in the River Danube in Vienna, according to a document issued by Interpol headquarters.
Interpol issued an international request to arrest
Libya
's
ex-oil minister Shokri Ghanem in connection with an anti-corruption
investigation in his home country, days before his body was found in the River
Danube in
Vienna
,
according to a document issued by Interpol headquarters.
The Arabic-language document, dated April 25, was issued by Interpol's
secretariat general and includes a serial number for a red notice--an official
request for any member of Interpol to arrest Ghanem, the former head of
Libya
's
National Oil Co. Ghanem was found dead April 29.
Ghanem is "a fugitive person wanted for trial," according to the
document seen by Dow Jones Newswires. It asks to "arrest him in order to
hand him over" to
Libya
, with
Egypt
, the
United
Arab Emirates
,
Qatar
and
Austria
mentioned as possible countries where he could be found.
A spokesman for
Libya
's
Interior Ministry confirmed Ghanem "was on the list" of individuals
whom
Libya
had
sought arrest through Interpol.
"There was a red notice" for Ghanem, he said. ?Ghanem had always
protested he was innocent.
The document said the
Libya
's
prosecutor's office had initially made the request and Ghanem stood accused of
"fraud of public money...causing intentional damage to public
money..interfering in incomes...making illegal gains and abuse of power."
It is unclear, however, whether Ghanem would have been detained following the
emission of the red notice. No national warrant was issued against Ghanem in
Austria
, the
country where latterly he lived and eventually died, a spokesman for that
country's Interior Ministry said, referring to Interpol on the international
request of arrest.
A red notice doesn't force Interpol members to take an individual into custody
and its enforcement typically depends on bilateral relations--such as
extradition agreements--between the country seeking arrest and the one where
the wanted person resides, a person familiar with the red-notice process said. A
spokeswoman for Interpol referred comment to the country made the request for
the red notice.
Once a prime minister, Ghanem defected from the regime of Col. Moammar Gadhafi
last year, protesting bloodshed. But he remained unpopular with many Libyans
and hadn't joined the new government.
An autopsy showed Ghanem had drowned, but a spokesman for
Vienna
prosecutor's office said it had yet to reach final conclusions on his death.
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