WORLD IS WORSE OFF WITHOUT ‘MAD DOG’ TYRANT...SAYS WOMAN HE HAD LOCKED UP
as his business consultant, which says a lot,” she says.
“He never looked down on women.” Indeed, the dictator’s elite bodyguard squad were an all-female team of Amazons, famously celibate — except with Gaddafi.
“They weren’t allowed to marry, but several of them were Gaddafi’s lovers,” admits divorcee Sharab.
“Some people simply assumed that I must be one of Gaddafi’s mistresses, but I never was, and he never made any sexual advances to me.
“I worked with Gaddafi for 22 years. If I’d been his lover, even if I looked like Brooke Shields, I wouldn’t have lasted more than two years. His lovers came and went, but we remained friends.”
She was bowled over by her first meeting with the Libyan strongman. “He was tall and handsome in a flowing robe, charismatic and intelligent, with an aura about him which was almost religious,” she says, recalling the young colonel as “beyond my wildest dreams”.
Sharab travelled the globe investing Libyan money. But she was also sent on diplomatic missions to comfort Libyan terrorists in foreign jai ls — she met with admitted
REGIME: Gaddafi
killers, and even convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi at Barlinnie jail in Scotland.
“I never doubted his innocence,” says Sharab. “He was framed.” When Gaddafiskipped a promised appearance at her brother’s wedding, Sharab snubbed the dictator for six months — “enough time for the intelligence service to poison Gaddafi’s mind against me,” she says. Gaddafi was notorious for turning on loved ones.
“He imprisoned his own sons to try to bring them under control, after their fights in nightclubs, drinking, mistreatment of domestic staff and drug taking,” she reveals. For over two decades he treated me like a favourite daughter, but then he turned on me.”
Sharab was arrested and held in the Tripoli prison compound that previously housed Gaddafi’s sons. For 19 months she languished in a small villa, fearing an executioner’s bullet at any moment.
Bomb
She miraculously escaped in 2011 as Libyans revolted against Gaddafi’s regime and were aided by NATO.
“NATO bombs fell on Tripoli and around my prison compound for days,” Sharab recalls. “I was terrified. Then one night a bomb hit the compound, and I was buried in rubble. I was only saved by two huge masonry slabs that formed a space over me.”
A kind-hearted rebel ultimately helped her escape to safety in Tunisia, from where she returned to Jordan where she now works as a business consultant in the Gulf.
Days after her escape Gaddafiwas beaten to death by a mob, finally ending his 42-year reign.
“No matter what he’d done to me, I did not want it to end like this,” says Sharab. “I wanted to see Gaddafi put on trial, in a civilised way.”
Hanging on the wall of her office in Amman, Jordan are photos of Sharab with dignitaries she met during her travels for Gaddafi, including US President George HW Bush, Hillary Clinton and former Israeli prime minister Shimon Peres. But pride of place goes to a photo with Gaddafi.
“Ididn’tcrywhenhedied,”she says. “But Libya is worse off without him. Gaddafiimproved healthcare, education and women’s rights, built roads and kept the streets safe. He brought stability. Now it’s not safe to go out at night there.
“I’m not saying he was an angel, but he was no devil either. He was just misunderstood.”
The Colonel and I: My Life With Gaddafiby Daad Sharab is released on Monday.