Al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi, the prime minister in the former Libyan regime of ousted leader Muammar Al Qadaffy...a reminder that a single man with an idea can screw up an entire nation...
, has been hospitalised in the Tunisian capital, Tunis due to complications following a hunger strike.
Al-Mahmoudi, Libyan prime minister since 2006, decamped Libya to neighbouring Tunisia in the midst of the conflict that eventually deposed Muammar Al Qadaffy from power. He is currently in detention, while the Tunisian government considers a request from the interim government of Libya for his extradition.
The former Libyan government official began a hunger strike early this month protesting his detention after a court of appeal had quashed his sentence of six months imprisonment for entering Tunisia without a visa.
His lawyer Mabrouk Korchid said that Al-Mahmoudi has serious heart problems and as he is also diabetic, his hunger strike has developed complications to his health. "He has been admitted to a military hospital in Tunis," Korchid said.
In an interview conducted through his lawyer, Al Mahmoudi has denied any involvement in repression during Al Qadaffy's rule. He said he wanted to cooperate with Libya's new interim government.
Al-Mahmoudi is the highest-ranked member of the former regime now in detention. During the first months of the conflict he gave televised briefings defending Al Qadaffy and accusing NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis....
of deliberately killing civilians