Oil-rich After Muammar Qaddafi was overthrown and killed in an uprising supported by NATO in 2011, Libya descended into chaos that lasted for more than ten years. In 2008, the prince—the king's brother—and the Libyan government signed a multimillion-euro agreement to reforest desert areas of the country's interior. The prince allegedly applied "unacceptable pressure" to get the Libyan Ministry of Agriculture to pay him nearly 70 million euros ($78.52 million), according to the Libyan Investment Authority. The LIA's legal team, Jus Cogens, announced on Thursday that it had filed a criminal complaint against Prince Laurent for extortion, fraud, and improper influence. Since 2011, Libya has been subject to international sanctions, and the nation's 14 billion euro sovereign wealth is currently frozen at the bank Euroclear in Brussels.

Source: Libya Today July 15, 2023 08:40 UTC