Wanis al-Qaddafi ( ar, ونيس القذافي) (22 November 1922 – 1 December 1986) was a Libyan politician. He held many positions in the era of the Kingdom of Libya and was the tenth Prime Minister of Libya from 4 September 1968 to 31 August 1969, when his government was overthrown by

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 ...

(no relation).

Biography

Qaddafi was born in

Benghazi Benghazi () , ; it, Bengasi; tr, Bingazi; ber, Bernîk, script=Latn; also: ''Bengasi'', ''Benghasi'', ''Banghāzī'', ''Binghāzī'', ''Bengazi''; grc, Βερενίκη (''Berenice'') and ''Hesperides''., group=note (''lit. Son of he Ghazi ...

, Italian Cyrenaica, in 1922, into the distinguished House of Shennib. During the Italian colonial period, an Italian lawyer trained him for a career in law. According to some accounts, during the Second World War he fled with his family to Sudan, only returning to his country after it was occupied by the British. The young Qaddafi was taken up by the Allied Forces overseeing the administration of Benghazi and was the first Libyan to be recruited by the British for the political administration of Cyrenaica. Following the independence of Libya in 1951, he became a provincial minister in Cyrenaica, first of health, later of justice and transportation, and chaired Cyrenaica's Executive Council. A friend of Idris of Libya, the post-war national leader, in 1962–1963 he was Minister of Foreign Affairs, then Interior Minister, and finally in September 1968 became the last Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Libya, replacing Abdul Hamid al-Bakkoush, whose reforms had alienated some conservative elements. On 17 November 1968, Qaddafi opened the fifth session of the

Libyan National Assembly Demographics of Libya is the demography of Libya, specifically covering population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, and religious affiliations, as well as other aspects of the Libyan population. The ...

in Bayda and gave the annual prime minister's speech from the throne, emphasizing the themes of "stability, prosperity, and progress". Qaddafi was ousted from office by a coup d'état against King Idris on 1 September 1969, and was sentenced by the Libyan People's Court to two years in prison.''A Political Chronology of Africa'' (Europa Publications, 2003), p. 242 He returned to private life after his release and died of a heart attack in December 1986, aged 64.

References

Prime Ministers of Libya 1922 births 1986 deaths Foreign ministers of Libya Interior ministers of Libya People from Benghazi Libyan politicians convicted of crimes {{Libya-politician-stub