Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh
Abdul Hamid Muhammad Abdul Rahman al-Dbeibeh[3] (Arabic: عبدالحميد محمد عبدالرحمن الدبيبة, also transliterated as Dbeibah; born 13 February 1958[4]) is a Libyan politician and businessman who is the prime minister of Libya under the Government of National Unity (GNU) in Tripoli. Dbeibeh was appointed on 15 February 2021 through the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum, and he was expected to hold the office until elections on 24 December 2021, which were later postponed.[5]
Abdul Hamid Al-Dbeibeh
Fayez al-Sarraj (as Chairman of the Presidential Council)
Himself
Salah Eddine al-Namroush
Himself
Najla El Mangoush
Fathallah al-Zani (Acting)
Amina el-Shawush
5
Early life and education[edit]
Dbeibeh was born on February 13, 1958, in the western city of Misrata.[1] Dbeibeh claimed to have earned a Master's degree in civil engineering from the University of Toronto in 1992; however, the university has denied Dbeibeh's claims.[6][7][8] The information was published days prior to December 24, 2021 Libyan elections, thus allowing for controversy over the Presidential candidate's false claims and fabrications in relation to his educational career.[9] Under Libyan electoral law, candidates are required to have a university degree from an accredited university.[8]
Business career[edit]
Dbeibeh returned to Misrata during a construction boom, gaining the trust of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who appointed him as the head of Libyan Investment and Development Company (LIDCO), a major construction firm responsible for some of the country's biggest public works projects, including the construction of 1,000 housing units in the leader's hometown of Sirte.[1] After Gaddafi’s fall in 2011, he was sanctioned for corruption by Libya’s new transitional government.[10]
Dbeibeh was the manager of the Al-Ittihad Football Club.[11]
Personal life[edit]
He is the cousin and brother in law of Ali Ibrahim Dabaiba, previously the mayor of Misrata and head of state-owned development contractor LIDCO during the Gaddafi era, who was in 2012 on a list of sanctioned officials, subject of an Interpol red notice and arrested in 2014. He is estimated to have embezzled as much as $7 billion at 2011 rates from contracts LIDCO had issued under his leadership, per Suisse secrets.[10][22]
Criticism[edit]
Wolfgang Pusztai, a former Austrian diplomat based in Libya, said that Dbeibeh's reputation was contentious for the prime ministership, since he was alleged to be involved in "corruption, money laundering, financing of the Muslim Brotherhood, vote buying". Pusztai felt that the truth of the claims was irrelevant to the political situation of 2021, since it was the perceptions that counted.[1]