Police Ex-Libyan NOC Head Drowned In Danube River

LONDON -- Austrian police said Monday former Libyan oil chief Shokri Ghanem had died by drowning in the Danube river in Vienna over the weekend, but after an autopsy on his body they said they don't suspect he was murdered.

Ghanem "died by drowning" but the authorities are "not suspicious of murder. That's the only thing we are sure about," Austrian police spokesman Roman Hahslinger told Dow Jones Newswires.

There was no evidence Ghanem killed himself, the police spokesman said. "We must look at all possibilities" such as suicide or accident.

The police don't know where he fell into the river.

A toxicology report is due before the end of this week, the police spokesman said.

Once Libya's prime minister, Ghanem was the chairman of Libya's National Oil Co. before defecting in May last year from Libya under the now defunct regime of Moammar Gadhafi.

Ghanem had recently been under investigation by the Libyan authorities in connection with his tenure at National Oil Co's helm, though he had denied any wrongdoing.

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