Libya: INTERPOL arrest warrants issued for former regime officials

International arrest warrants – also known as INTERPOL Red Notices - have been issued for a number of senior officials from the former Qadhafi regime. They include:

Senussi al-Wazri (a.k.a. Al-Senussi Alozyre) (b.1948) who was both a former director general of public security (i.e. interior minister) and notorious head of security in Benghazi. He is wanted by Libya for “counterfeiting, forgery, kidnapping, life and health”. He was allegedly involved in the December 1993 kidnapping in Cairo of the leading opposition figure Mansour al-Kikhiya who was allegedly returned to Libya where he was executed.

Nasser al-Mabrouk Abdallah al-Riyani (b.1951) who was appointed in April 2009 as the deputy director general of public security who is also wanted for “kidnapping, life and health”. He is alleged to have been involved in torture and in the Abu Selim prison massacre, and was one of the key individuals within the Leader's entourage who was virtually adopted as a youth into Qadhafi's service.

Colonel Bashir Sahel Bashir, once Colonel Mu'ammar Qadhafi's chief of staff and trusted aide, who since 2005 was the head of the Libya Africa Portfolio for Investment (LAPI) (a.k.a Libyan Fund for Investment in Africa) It is hoped that he could provide details of missing Libyan cash and assets worth an estimated US$7 billion. LAPI invested some of Libya's oil wealth in a multitude of companies in both Libya and Sub-Saharan Africa. Foreign Minister Ashour Ben Khayal, among many others, is anxious to locate the funds and return them to Libya. While Reuters reported that Bashir – who originally comes from the border area and speaks fluent French - was issued with a Nigerien passport in December 2011, there are also rumours that he may be in Paris.

For more news and expert analysis about Libya, please see Libya Focus and Libya Politics & Security.

© 2012 Menas Associates