Former Libyan oil minister Shukri Ghanem, whose body was found floating Sunday in the Danube river, died from drowning, Austrian police said.
Autopsy results on Ghanem's corpse showed no signs of violence, police spokesman Roman Hahslinger said Monday. The body was found in a section of the Danube that runs through Vienna close to where he had a residence.
Ghanem last year announced he was abandoning
Gadhafi's regime to support the rebels who ultimately toppled the dictator. He
was a former Libyan premier who last served as his country's oil minister until
his 2011 defection.
He left Libya for Tunisia and then
Europe in June as insurgents were pushing to topple Gadhafi. In Vienna, he
worked as a consultant for an Austrian company.
Considered a member of Gadhafi's inner
circle until his defection, he insisted that Libya bore no responsibility for
the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed
270 people.
Hahslinger suggested the death may have
been an accident and that Ghanem, 69, had complained to his daughter late
Saturday that he was not feeling well. No suicide note has been found and there
is no evidence Ghanem was under threat, Hahslinger said.
The results of toxicological tests are
expected later this week.
An account of Mr Ghanem's denial of
Libyan involvement in the downing of Pan Am 103 notwithstanding the
August 2003 "acceptance
of responsibility" letter can be read here.]
Of course you can be standing near the river just as you get a heart attack. Of course it may happen without anyone seeing you. Actually, is does happen.
ReplyDeleteBut those who want to die under circumstances that gives no basis for speculation and suspicion should find another way.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2137148/Dead-body-Shukri-Ghanem-river-Danube.html?ITO=1490
"An Austrian foreign ministry official said family members initially told the ministry that Mr Ghanem had died of a heart attack, adding that their version appeared to be plausible."
One of the oddest sentences I recall reading.