Prince Ahmed Al-Zubair al-Senussi, also known as Zubeir Ahmed El-Sharif, ( ar, أحمد الزبير الشريف السنوسي) (born 1934) is a Libyan member of the

Senussi The Senusiyya, Senussi or Sanusi ( ar, السنوسية ''as-Sanūssiyya'') are a Muslim political-religious tariqa (Sufi order) and clan in colonial Libya and the Sudan region founded in Mecca in 1837 by the Grand Senussi ( ar, السنوسي ...

house and a member of the National Transitional Council representing political prisoners.

Biography

He is a great-nephew of Idris of Libya, the only king of Libya, and was named after his grandfather

Ahmed Sharif as-Senussi Ahmed Sharif as-Senussi ( ar, أحمد الشريف السنوسي) (1873 – 10 March 1933) was the supreme leader of the Senussi order (1902–1933), although his leadership in the years 1917–1933 could be considered nominal. His daughter, ...

. Ahmed al-Senussi graduated from the Military Academy of Iraq in 1958. In 1961 he married his wife Fatilah, since deceased. In 1970, he began planning to overthrow

Muammar Gaddafi Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, . Due to the lack of standardization of transcribing written and regionally pronounced Arabic, Gaddafi's name has been romanized in various ways. A 1986 column by ''The Straight Dope'' lists 32 spellin ...

one year after Gaddafi had seized power in a military coup. Along with his brother and other conspirators, he sought to replace the Gaddafi government and allegedly give people a chance to choose between a monarchy or a constitutional republic. He was arrested and sentenced to death; however, in 1988 his sentence was commuted to an additional 13 years incarceration, and his family was allowed to visit him. He stayed in solitary confinement for the first nine years of his sentence and was allegedly frequently tortured. He claims that the torture included frequent beatings with sticks, being strung up by his hands and legs, nearly drowned, and having his feet broken. After being let out of solitary confinement, he shared a cell with numerous other prisoners, including

Omar El-Hariri Omar Mokhtar El-Hariri ( – 2 November 2015) was a leading figure of the National Transitional Council of Libya who served as the Minister of Military Affairs in 2011, during the Libyan Civil War. He controlled the National Liberation Army and ...

. After being transferred to

Abu Salim prison Abu Salim prison ( ar, سجن أبو سليم) is a maximum security prison in Tripoli, Libya. The prison was notorious during the rule of Muammar Gaddafi for alleged mistreatment and human rights abuses, including a massacre in 1996 in which H ...

in 1984, he learned that his wife had died while he was in captivity. He received a pardon on the 32nd anniversary of Gaddafi taking power, and received

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

107,300 (131,000 Libyan dinars) and a monthly

pension A pension (, from Latin ''pensiō'', "payment") is a fund into which a sum of money is added during an employee's employment years and from which payments are drawn to support the person's retirement from work in the form of periodic payments ...

of US$ 314.62 (400 Libyan dinars). He was held as a political prisoner for 31 years until his release in 2001, making him the longest incarcerated prisoner in modern Libyan history. On 27 October 2011, the European Parliament chose him with four other Arab people to win Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 2011. On 6 March 2012, Ahmed al-Senussi was announced as the leader of the self-declared

Cyrenaica Transitional Council Cyrenaica Transitional Council also shortened as CTC is the claimed government of the Libyan Region of Cyrenaica Cyrenaica ( ) or Kyrenaika ( ar, برقة, Barqah, grc-koi, Κυρηναϊκή ��παρχίαKurēnaïkḗ parkhíā}, after t ...

Ancestry

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Senussi, Ahmed al- 1934 births Living people

Ahmed al-Senussi Prince Ahmed Al-Zubair al-Senussi, also known as Zubeir Ahmed El-Sharif, ( ar, أحمد الزبير الشريف السنوسي) (born 1934) is a Libyan member of the Senussi house and a member of the National Transitional Council representing po ...

People of the First Libyan Civil War Libyan Muslims Prisoners sentenced to death by Libya Libyan prisoners sentenced to death Libyan torture victims Government ministers of Libya Members of the National Transitional Council Libyan people of Algerian descent Libyan people of Arab descent Sakharov Prize laureates 20th-century Libyan people