Shukri Ghanem

Shukri Mohammed Ghanem (Arabic: شكري محمد إمحمد غانم 9 October 1942 – 29 April 2012) was a Libyan politician who was the General Secretary of the General People's Committee of Libya (prime minister) from June 2003 until March 2006 when, in the first major government reshuffle in over a decade, he was replaced by his deputy, Baghdadi Mahmudi. Ghanem subsequently served as the Minister of Oil until 2011. On 29 April 2012, his body was found floating on the New Danube, Vienna.

Early in the Libyan Civil War he reportedly "fled", but after the city of Ra's Lanuf was recaptured by pro-government forces, AP reported on 13 March that he asked Eni SpA for help with putting out a fire at the Ra's Lanuf Refinery. On 16 May, Al Arabiya and the NTC reported that Shukri Ghanem had defected to Tunisia. The next day Tunisian security officials confirmed that he was indeed in Tunisia.

Ghanem was born in Tripoli, at the time capital of Italian Libya, on 9 October 1942. He studied economics at Garyounis University in Benghazi and graduated in 1963. He also held PhD in international economics from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and Harvard University in 1975.

Ghanem was previously in charge of the OPEC secretariat, and was the director of its research division. He served as deputy director and director of foreign trade at the Ministry of Economy in Libya; was director of marketing of Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC); was director of economic affairs and under secretary and chief advisor at the Ministry of Petroleum in Libya. In 2003, Ghanem was appointed general secretary of the General People's Committee or Prime Minister. In March 2006, Ghanem was appointed Chairman of Libya's NOC. He tendered his resignation from NOC in August 2009 amidst probable disagreements within the Libyan government over the development of the oil sector.

After defection to Vienna in 2011, he served as a consultant for a Vienna-based company until his death.

Libya had been diplomatically isolated and subject to international sanctions since the November 1991 indictment of two Libyans for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 on 21 December 1988 (the Lockerbie bombing). Following Ghanem's appointment as prime minister, Libya successfully sought re-entry into the international community and the lifting of sanctions. Ghanem was seen as the main spokesman and architect of this rapprochement, which included paying $2.16 billion compensation in August 2003 to the families of the 270 people who died in the bombing, and renouncing weapons of mass destruction.

In February 2004, Ghanem was interviewed on the BBC Radio 4 Today program. He stirred controversy in the interview by repudiating Libya's responsibility both for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing and the 1984 murder of British WPC Yvonne Fletcher (who was shot and killed in April 1984 outside the Libyan Embassy in London). This incident led to the severing of UK/Libya diplomatic relations.

After the problems we [Libya] have been facing because of the sanctions, the loss of money, we thought that it was easier for us to buy peace and this is why we agreed a compensation," Ghanem said in the interview.