Banani: The Brotherhood’s arm for controlling Libya

Ahmed Adel

The Justice and Construction Party, the branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in Libya, nominated the leader of the group, Emad al-Banani, to be the head of its party on June 19.

In this, Banani will succeed the former party head Mohamed Sawan.

Banani will have a four-year term at the saddle of the party of the Islamist group. The party was led by Sawan during the past ten years.

The Justice and Construction Party elected Banani as its head during its extraordinary conference in Tripoli.

He won the second round of voting for the leadership of the party, having contested the elections with Suleiman Abdel-Qader, another senior party member.

Five senior Brotherhood members contested the polls, including a woman. Nevertheless, the actual competition was between Sawan and Abdel-Qader.

Brotherhood joker

Banani was born in Benghazi in 1960. He is a co-founder of the branch of the Brotherhood in the eastern Libyan city.

At the beginning of his career, he briefly worked as an aviation engineer, before he left Libya altogether in 1995 for Switzerland.

According to the Libya 24 news website, Banani is one of the most active symbols of the international organization of the Muslim Brotherhood. He is probably the most prominent Brotherhood figure in Europe, the site says.

Banani was always associated with the Egyptian Brotherhood as well as with Youssef Nada, a prominent Brotherhood businessman.

He owns the Lord Energy Company which partners with the Qatari-Swiss company, Glicnor. This company signed a marketing contract with the Libyan Petroleum Corporation.

Banani returned to Libya after the downfall of the Muammar Gaddafi regime in 2011.

He contributed to formulating a plan that would bring the Brotherhood back to the Libyan scene.