Ali Zeidan (sometimes written as Zidan; ; born 5 December 1950) is a former prime minister of Libya. He was appointed by the

General National Congress The General National Congress or General National Council (GNC; ) was the Legislature, legislative authority of Libya for two years following the end of the First Libyan Civil War. It was elected by popular vote on 7 July 2012, and took power f ...

on 14 October 2012, and took office on 14 November after Congress approved his cabinet nominees. Prior to the Libyan Civil War, Zeidan was a

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

-based human rights lawyer. According to the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

, he is considered by some local observers as a strong-minded liberal. He was ousted by the parliament committee and fled from Libya on 14 March 2014. However, he told a press conference in

Rabat, Morocco Rabat (, also , ; ) is the capital city of Morocco and the country's seventh-largest city with an urban population of approximately 580,000 (2014) and a metropolitan population of over 1.2 million. It is also the capital city of the Rabat-Salé ...

, that the ousting was invalid.

Career

Ali Zeidan was born in 1950, and grew up in the town of Waddan. He served as a diplomat for Libya during the 1970s, serving in India under Ambassador Mohammed Magariaf. Both men defected in 1980 and went on to form the National Front for the Salvation of Libya. Zeidan spent nearly three decades in exile in

after the defection. During the revolution, Zeidan served as the

National Transitional Council The National Transitional Council (NTC) was a transitional government established in the 2011 Libyan civil war. After rebel forces overthrew the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya of Muammar Gaddafi in August 2011, the NTC governed Libya for a further ...

's Europe envoy, and is credited for playing a key role in persuading French president

Nicolas Sarkozy Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa ( ; ; born 28 January 1955) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2007 to 2012. In 2021, he was found guilty of having tried to bribe a judge in 2014 to obtain information ...

to support the

anti-Gaddafi forces The anti-Gaddafi forces, also known as the Libyan opposition or Libyan rebels, were Libyan groups that opposed and militarily defeated the government of Muammar Gaddafi during the First Libyan Civil War in 2011, killing him in the process. The A ...

Congressman

On 7 July 2012, Zeidan was elected as an independent congressman for Jufra in the 2012 Congressional election. He ran for the position of Speaker of the Congress, but ultimately lost out to his former opposition colleague Mohammed Magariaf, obtaining 85 votes. On 10 October 2012, Zeidan resigned his seat in Congress.

Prime minister

Following Mustafa Abushagur's unsuccessful attempt to form a government, Zeidan resigned his seat in Congress and ran for the position of prime minister against the

Justice and Construction Party In its broadest sense, justice is the idea that individuals should be treated fairly. According to the ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', the most plausible candidate for a core definition comes from the ''Institutes'' of Justinian, a ...

's favoured candidate, Mohammed Al-Harari. Zeidan was elected prime minister-designate by a vote of 93 to 85, with two weeks to submit his proposed new government for approval by Congress. Zeidan was reported to have been supported by members of Congress belonging to the generally liberal National Forces Alliance (organized by Mahmoud Jibril), as well as by certain independents informally affiliated as the Workers group (with 20 members) and the Southern group (with 31). Zeidan's cabinet was approved by Congress on 31 October 2012, although six of its members were referred for investigation into alleged links to the former Gaddafi regime. All six were subsequently cleared of the charges and Zeidan's government was sworn in on 14 November. Zeidan's cabinet avowedly aimed at geographical as well as political balance, including ministers from the National Forces Alliance, the

, and independents. Zeidan was quoted as promising at his swearing-in that his government would abide by the Constitutional Declaration and "give its utmost best to the nation based on the

rule of law The essence of the rule of law is that all people and institutions within a Body politic, political body are subject to the same laws. This concept is sometimes stated simply as "no one is above the law" or "all are equal before the law". Acco ...

, human rights, democracy, rights, and the belief in

God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

, His Prophet and a state based on Islam".

Kidnappings

2013

Zeidan was kidnapped by armed militants from the Corinthia Hotel in Tripoli during the early morning of 10 October 2013 and taken to an undisclosed location. The group Joint Operations Room of Libya's Revolutionaries said they abducted Zeidan as a reaction to his government's alleged involvement in the American capture of Anas al-Liby, and his statements in late September calling for international assistance in building an official army and police force. Zeidan was freed hours later.

2017

Zeidan was kidnapped again on 14 August 2017, by an armed group, being taken from a hotel in the Libyan capital of Tripoli. On 22 August, he was released without any reasons given by his kidnappers after being held for ten days in Tripoli and was taken near to Mehary Radisson Blu hotel.

Dismissal

On 11 March 2014, the rogue oil tanker ''

Morning Glory Morning glory (also written as morning-glory) is the common name for over 1,000 species of flowering plants in the family Convolvulaceae, whose taxonomy and systematics remain in flux. These species are distributed across numerous genus, gene ...

'' left the rebel port of Sidra, Libya, with Libyan oil that had been confiscated by the rebels. Ali Zeidan had promised to stop the departure, but failed. The same day, Zeidan was reported to have been ousted by the parliament committee and then to have fled to Europe, although fleeing the country was banned for him. However, he told the press conference in

, that the ousting was invalid.

Alleged flight to Malta

On 8 June 2014, the Maltese government denied a Maltese blogger's claim that Ali Zeidan was residing in

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

, under the protection of the Maltese government.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zeidan, Ali 1950 births 2013 crimes in Libya 2017 crimes in Libya Kidnapped politicians National Party for Development and Welfare politicians Living people People from Jufra District Prime ministers of Libya Kidnapped Libyan people Kidnappings in Libya Missing person cases in Libya Libyan exiles Libyan defectors Libyan expatriates in India 20th-century diplomats