Tripoli, 12 March 2014:
The country’s new caretaker Prime Minister, Abdullah Al-Thinni, was quickly sworn-in late in the day at yesterday’s dramatic General National Congress (GNC) session.
Thinni, who will be Prime Minister for all of two weeks while the opposing blocs in the GNC agree on a more permanent replacement for Ali Zeidan, lived in the Busleem district of Tripoli and hails from the southern town of Ghadames.
He graduated from military college in 1976 and then fought in the Libyan-Egyptian war while stationed in Tobruk.
Thinni was also a professor at the military college for seven years. However, after his brother – an Air Force pilot – absconded to Egypt in a military plane in opposition to the Qaddafi regime, things became more difficult for Thinni, according to the Prime Minister’s Office.
He served time in prison because of his brother’s escape and faced other difficulties, until 1997 when he took early retirement.
Thinni had taken over the position of Defence Minister in August 2013 which had been vacant after previous Defence Minister Mohammed Barghathi was sacked towards the end of June, following widespread dissatisfaction with his responses to increased violence and killings in the country. [/restrict]