Libya's former top oil industry official Shokri Ghanem has been found dead, floating in the River Danube in Austria.
The 69-year-old had been chairman of Libya's state-owned National Oil Corporation (NOC) before defecting last year, several months after opponents of Muammar Gaddafi had rebelled.
As NOC chairman since 2006, Mr Ghanem helped steer Libya's oil policy and held the job of representing Libya at OPEC meetings.
"He was found dead in the Danube river at 8.40am. There is no suspicion at all of foul play at this stage. The corpse exhibited no signs of violence," a Vienna police spokesman said.
Vienna police today said that he drowned, but a Libyan security source suggested he could have been murdered.
After making a final break with the Gaddafi administration last year, Mr Ghanem first appeared in Rome.
He said he had defected because of the "unbearable violence" being used by government forces to try to put down the rebellion.
He was believed to have been living in Europe in exile since then, but was still closely associated with Gaddafi's rule by Libya's new leaders and had ruled out returning home.
