Umar Abdullah el-Muhayshi (; 1941 – January, 1984), also

transliterated Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one writing system, script to another that involves swapping Letter (alphabet), letters (thus ''wikt:trans-#Prefix, trans-'' + ''wikt:littera#Latin, liter-'') in predictable ways, such as ...

as Omar al-Meheshi, was a Libyan army officer and a member of the

Libyan Revolutionary Command Council The Revolutionary Command Council () was a twelve-member governing body that ruled the Libyan Arab Republic after the 1969 Libyan coup d'état by the Free Officers Movement (Libya), Free Officers Movement, which overthrew the Kingdom of Libya, Se ...

(RCC) that ruled

Libya Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya border, the east, Sudan to Libya–Sudan border, the southeast, Chad to Chad–L ...

after the

1969 Libyan coup d'état The 1969 Libyan revolution, also known as the al-Fateh Revolution or 1 September Revolution, was a coup d'état and revolution carried out by the Free Officers Movement (Libya), Free Officers Movement, a group of Arab nationalism, Arab nationali ...

Life

Born to a family of Circassian and

Turkish Turkish may refer to: * Something related to Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities in the former Ottoman Empire * The w ...

origin, Umar Muhayshi was said to be a childhood friend of

Muammar Gaddafi Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi (20 October 2011) was a Libyan military officer, revolutionary, politician and political theorist who ruled Libya from 1969 until Killing of Muammar Gaddafi, his assassination by Libyan Anti-Gaddafi ...

and later a member of the group of army officers called the Free Officers Movement that brought ousted the royal regime in Libya on 1 September 1969. He was one of the twelve members of the RCC, headed by

. He was promoted to the rank of Major after the

revolution In political science, a revolution (, 'a turn around') is a rapid, fundamental transformation of a society's class, state, ethnic or religious structures. According to sociologist Jack Goldstone, all revolutions contain "a common set of elements ...

. After the establishment of the

Libyan People's Court The Libyan People's Court is an emergency tribunal founded in Libya after the revolution of 1 September 1969. Although its initial purpose was to try the officials of the overthrown Kingdom, many others also were tried by this court. This article ...

in October 1969, he represented the attorney-general at the court. He was Minister of Treasury in 1970. He was later appointed Minister of Planning and took issue with Gaddafi's use of Libyan resources to further

pan-Arab Pan-Arabism () is a pan-nationalist ideology that espouses the unification of all Arab people in a single nation-state, consisting of all Arab countries of West Asia and North Africa from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Sea, which is ref ...

and

anti-colonialist Decolonization is the undoing of colonialism, the latter being the process whereby imperial nations establish and dominate foreign territories, often overseas. The meanings and applications of the term are disputed. Some scholars of decolon ...

causes. Instead, he wanted Libya to invest its oil revenues in agriculture and industry, particularly heavy industries, such as iron and steel, in his hometown

Misrata Misrata ( ; , Libyan Arabic: ; also spelled Misratah and known by the Italian spelling Misurata) is a city in northwestern Libya located in the Misrata District, situated to the east of Tripoli on the Mediterranean coast near Cape Misrata. ...

. In August 1975, Gaddafi's regime announced that an attempted

coup d'état A coup d'état (; ; ), or simply a coup , is typically an illegal and overt attempt by a military organization or other government elites to unseat an incumbent leadership. A self-coup is said to take place when a leader, having come to powe ...

had been forestalled. All thirteen leading conspirators were members of the Free Officers Movement and four of them (Muhayshi, Bashir Houadi, Abdul Munim el Houni and Awad Hamza) were members of the RCC. By that time Muhayshi had already fled to

Tunis Tunis (, ') is the capital city, capital and largest city of Tunisia. The greater metropolitan area of Tunis, often referred to as "Grand Tunis", has about 2,700,000 inhabitants. , it is the third-largest city in the Maghreb region (after Casabl ...

. Most of the other supposed conspirators were executed in March 1976. In an interview with ''

Al-Ahram ''Al-Ahram'' (; ), founded on 5 August 1876, is the most widely circulating Egyptian daily newspaper, and the second-oldest after '' Al-Waqa'i' al-Misriyya'' (''The Egyptian Events'', founded 1828). It is majority owned by the Egyptian governm ...

,'' Muhayshi denied attempting a coup and stated that he had merely tried to "correct Gaddafi's error" and had asked Gaddafi to resign. In the same interview, Muhayshi referred to Gaddafi as a "dangerous psychopath." According to declassified diplomatic telegram sent from the US Embassy in Egypt to the

State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs o ...

, Egyptian President

Anwar Sadat Muhammad Anwar es-Sadat (25 December 1918 – 6 October 1981) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the third president of Egypt, from 15 October 1970 until Assassination of Anwar Sadat, his assassination by fundame ...

was using Muhayshi's radio broadcast to discredit Gaddafi and most of Gaddafi's RCC (with the exception of

Abdessalam Jalloud Abdessalam Jalloud (; born 15 December 1944) is a Libyan former politician and military officer who served as the prime minister of Libya from 16 July 1972 to 2 March 1977, under the government of Muammar Gaddafi. He was also Minister of Treasur ...

) had turned against him by 1976. In light of this development, Sadat's government considered several options: forming a Libyan government-in-exile headed by Muhayshi, using

Saudi Saudi or Saudi Arabian may refer to: * Saudi Arabia * Saudis, people from Saudi Arabia * Saudi culture, the culture of Saudi Arabia * House of Saud, the ruling family of Saudi Arabia See also *Saud (disambiguation) The House of Saud The H ...

money to fund anti-Gaddafi dissidents inside Libya, or creating a Muhayshi-led government on Libyan territory (near the Libya-Egypt border), where Muhayshi could then appeal for an Egyptian "intervention" to remove Gaddafi by force either through arrest or assassination. Between 1976 and 1983, Muhayshi lived in

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

and

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

. While he was in Egypt, some sources said that Gaddafi's regime tried to assassinate Muhayshi more than once. Most notably, Gaddafi allegedly offered ex-

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

officers

Edwin P. Wilson Edwin Paul Wilson (May 3, 1928 – September 10, 2012) was a former CIA and Office of Naval Intelligence officer who was convicted in 1983 of illegally selling weapons to Libya. It was later found that the United States Department of Justice had ...

and Frank Terpil $1 million in 1976 to recruit a group of

Cuban exiles A Cuban exile is a person who has been exiled from Cuba. Many Cuban exiles have various differing experiences as emigrants depending on when they emigrated from Cuba, and why they emigrated. The exile of Cubans has been a dominating factor in C ...

involved in

Bay of Pigs Invasion The Bay of Pigs Invasion (, sometimes called or after the Playa Girón) was a failed military landing operation on the southwestern coast of Cuba in April 1961 by the United States of America and the Cuban Democratic Revolutionary Front ...

to assassinate Muhayshi. The Cuban exiles initially thought the target of the assassination would be

Carlos the Jackal Ilich Ramírez Sánchez (; born 12 October 1949), also known as Carlos the Jackal () or simply Carlos, is a Venezuelan convict who conducted a series of assassinations and terrorist bombings from 1973 to 1985. A committed Marxist–Leninist, ...

, then living in Libya under Gaddafi's protection, and they refused to partake in the plot when the target turned out to be Muhayshi. Wilson was sentenced to 32 years in prison over his ties to Gaddafi, but was acquitted in 1983 on the counts of murder conspiracy and conspiracy to solicit murder in the Muhayshi case. Terpil never stood trial as he remained a fugitive for the rest of his life. Muhayshi remained in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

until President

announced his intention to visit

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

in 1979, which Muhayshi publicly and vehemently opposed, resulting in the freezing of his activities and his expulsion from Egypt to Morocco in July 1980. In 1983, while Muhayshi was in Morocco, then ruled by King

Hassan II Hassan, Hasan, Hassane, Haasana, Hassaan, Asan, Hassun, Hasun, Hassen, Hasson or Hasani may refer to: People *Hassan (given name), Arabic given name and a list of people with that given name *Hassan (surname), Arabic, Jewish, Irish, and Scotti ...

, the Moroccan authorities delivered Muhayshi to Gaddafi in exchange for Gaddafi promising to cut off financial aid to the

Polisario Front The Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Río de Oro (Spanish language, Spanish: ; ), better known by its acronym Polisario Front, is a Sahrawi nationalism, Sahrawi nationalist liberation movement seeking to end the occupatio ...

. Muhayshi was murdered in January 1984 under

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons including corporal punishment, punishment, forced confession, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimid ...

by Sa'eed Rashid, according to

Abdel Rahman Shalgham Abdel Rahman Shalgam (Arabic: عبد الرحمن شلقم; born 22 January 1949) is a Libyan politician. He was Foreign Minister of Libya from 2000 to 2009. Early life Shalgam was born in Sabha in southern Libya. Career in politics In 1973, he ...

.el-Magariaf, p.469 According to another account, he was allegedly stomped to death on the airport runway as soon as he landed in

Tripoli Tripoli or Tripolis (from , meaning "three cities") may refer to: Places Greece *Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in the Pelasgiotis district, Thessaly, near Larissa ...

Notes

References

Mohamed Yousef el-Magariaf Mohammed Yousef el-Magariaf (also written as Magariaf, Elmegaryaf or Almegaryaf) or, as he writes on his official website, Dr. Mohamed Yusuf Al Magariaf (; born 9 May 1940), is a Libyan politician who served as the President of the General Nationa ...

(2008). ''Libia men al Shar’iya ad Dustouriya elal Shar’iya ath Thawriya''. Dar al Istiqlal & Maktabat Wahba,

. *Al Wasat magazine,

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. * 1941 births 1984 deaths Benghazi Military University Academy alumni Finance ministers of Libya Libyan people of Circassian descent Libyan people of Turkish descent Libyan Arab Socialist Union politicians Libyan military personnel People extradited to Libya Libyan people imprisoned abroad Libyan torture victims Libyan people who died in prison custody Prisoners who died in Libyan detention Libyan murder victims People murdered in Libya People extradited from Morocco Deaths by beating 1984 crimes in Libya 1984 murders in Libya Assassinated Libyan politicians Assassinations in Libya Asian politicians assassinated in the 1980s Politicians assassinated in 1984 {{Libya-politician-stub