A former Guantanamo Bay prisoner detained over alleged links with Al-Qaeda has worked as an adviser in the Libyan oil industry, The National reports.
Omar Deghayes, born in Libya, fled the country in 1986 and settled in the UK. In the early 2000s, he traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan and was arrested in Pakistan in 2002. Deghayes spent five years at Guantanamo Bay and was released in 2007 without charge.
FILE PHOTO © Esam Omran Al-FetoriTerrorists attack Libyan oil pipeline, crippling daily crude output by up to 100k barrels
Deghayes was director of legal affairs at the Libyan oil ministry, and according to his LinkedIn profile, he is legal consultant at the National Oil Corporation (NOC) of Libya.
NOC chairman Mustafa Sanalla has told an analyst that Deghayes did not advise the company and was not paid by the NOC.
“Omar Deghayes was employed by the previous Ministry of Oil. He returned to the UK after that. He is not paid by NOC, nor does he advise anybody at NOC,” Sanalla said in a message sent to Claudia Gazzini, senior analyst for Libya at the International Crisis Group, and seen by The National.