Abdel Moneim al-Houni

Abdel Moniem al-Taher al-Houni (Arabic: عبد المنعم الطاهر الهوني), also transliterated as Abdul Munim el-Huni, is a Libyan military officer, diplomat, and politician.

[1] Houni was a major and among the Free Officers involved in the 1969 Libyan coup d'état that overthrew King Idris and brought Muammar Gaddafi to power.

"[7] In January 1987, a wide range of anti-Gaddafi Libyans in exile, including Ba'athists, socialists, monarchists, liberals, and Islamic fundamentalists, agreed to coordinate under the leadership of Houni.

[8] In October 1992, Houni reportedly attended an anti-Gaddafi meeting in Algeria with another former foreign minister Mansour Rashid El-Kikhia, the leader of the Libyan National Alliance.

On 10 December 1993, Kikhia disappeared in Cairo and was widely believed to have been abducted (his body was not found until 2012 in a refrigerator that belonged to Gaddafi's intelligence chief Abdullah Senussi).

Days after Kikhia's disappearance, Gaddafi attended a political meeting that called for the killing of Houni, who was described by the Libyan press as a "traitor, spy, and stray dog.

[11] In July 2007, Houni demanded other Arab countries cut diplomatic and economic ties with Bulgaria in the aftermath of the HIV trial in Libya.

He stated that after losing Tripoli, Gaddafi had only three choices: his hometown Sirte, the desert Jufra District, or the oasis town of Traghan near the border with Niger.