Mansour Rashid El-Kikhia

Template:Distinguish Mansour Rashid Kikhia (also spelled Mansur), (د. منصور الكيخيا; born 1 December 1931) is a former Libyan Minister of Foreign Affairs (1972-1973), Libyan Ambassador to the United Nations, Permanent Libyan Representative to the United Nations, and later an opposition figure to Libya's leader Muammar Gaddafi, and human rights activist. He was born in Benghazi, Libya.

Disappearance in Egypt

In 1993, eyewitnesses at the time reported that he was abducted by three men in a black limousine with diplomatic license plate a few yards from the Cairo Hotel Safir where he was staying. Neither the Egyptian nor the Libyan authorities have issued reports or claimed responsibility regarding this forced disappearance, ever. A four-year investigation conducted by the CIA produced convincing evidence that Egyptian agents staged the abduction and then handed over al-Kikhia to the Libyan authorities, who executed him.

Egyptian government accusations

The striking similarity between Reda Helal and Kikhia cases has raised widespread suspicion about the involvement of high ranking Egyptian officials. Dr. Kikhia's lawyer does not rule out Libyan and US involvement in his disappearance. The recent arrest in London of a highly respected Egyptian engineer, Professor Momdouh Hamza, has implicated four top Egyptian officials with close ties to the Mubarak family and re-opened the rumor mill in Cairo. For years Egyptians have heard of forced disappearance of public figures elsewhere in the region (e.g. Iraq, Syria and Libya) but not their own.

See also

• Reda Helal

External links

• "Egyptian appeals court fines Ministry of the Interior over al-Kekhya's protection," ArabicNews.com (2/23/1999).
• Dr. Saad Eddin Ibrahim, "Moral Isolation of the Egyptian Ruler," Ibn khaldun center for development studies.