Libyan revolution premier Jibril dies from coronavirus

FILE PHOTO: Libyan former interim Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril talks during an interview with Reuters in Cairo, Egypt May 22, 2018. REUTERS/Aidan Lewis

CAIRO (Reuters) - Mahmoud Jibril, who abandoned Muammar Gaddafi to become Libya's rebel prime minister during the 2011 revolution, died on Sunday after contracting the novel coronavirus, an aide and his party said.

Jibril was interim leader until the country held its first free elections in four decades in 2012, following the toppling of Gaddafi the year before. He died in a private hospital in Cairo where he had been treated since contracting the virus late last month, said the aide, Fawzi Ammar.