Saturday 1 October 2011

Moussa Ibrahim

Moussa Ibrahim, موسى إبراهيم‎ ; romanized also as Mussa and Musa is a Libyan political figure, serving as Libyan Minister of Information and the official spokesman for Muammar Gaddafi as of March 2011. He came to general international attention during the 2011 Libyan civil war.



Biography


Moussa was born in 1974 into Gaddafi's Qadhadhfa tribe. He has a German wife and a young son, and studied politics at the University of Exeter in the early 2000s. He worked on a PhD in media arts at Royal Holloway, University of London, completing his final exam in May 2010—although he has not formally received his doctorate as supervisors are awaiting a small number of required amendments to his thesis. One of Moussa's lecturers at the University of Exeter, Dr Larbi Sadiki, described him as an engaging, friendly but serious student—"a nice guy but with a short fuse". 
He told Sky News: "I lived in London for 15 years. I know every street in London. I know how decent the British people are."
On 19 August 2011, his brother was allegedly killed by an "Apache helicopter" in Zawiya.
During the Battle of Tripoli, he called for a ceasefire and blamed NATO and the West for the situation, and said that the conflicting parties should sit down and negotiate, although he also said that thousands of professional soldiers were ready to defend Tripoli against rebel forces staging an uprising within the capital, as well those advancing towards the city from Zawiya. 
It was incorrectly reported on 29 September 2011 that Ibrahim had been captured near Sirte by NTC fighters. No independent confirmation was forthcoming, and the report was denied by a pro-Gaddafi TV channel. Later that day a spokesman for the Misrata military council, Adel Ibrahim, told AFP "We cannot confirm he was arrested", and two days later an NTC commander admitted they had not captured him.

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