Emad al-Banani, possible head of Brotherhood's party in Libya

The Justice and Construction, the party of the Muslim Brotherhood in Libya, prepares for its annual congress, which is slated for January next year.

Speculation is rife, meanwhile, about the possibility that Emad al-Banani, a leader of the party and one of its cofounders, will succeed its current head Mohamed Sawan.

Banani has been at the center of rifts that emerged recently within Libya's Brotherhood because of the movement's continual meddling into the party's affairs. Some party leaders have been calling on movement leaders to stop interfering in their work.

Banani enjoys support from hard-line Muslim Brotherhood leaders. These leaders include al-Sadek al-Gheriani and Ali al-Salabi, both based in Turkey. Both men are also responsible for engineering the party's election.

Libyan media describes Banani as the quite contrast of Sawan who curtailed Brotherhood interference in the affairs of the party since taking over in 2012.  

Who is he?

His full name is Emad Abdelatif al-Banani. He was born in Benghazi in 1960. He was a cofounder of the Brotherhood in his city. Banani worked as an aviation engineer at the beginning. In 1995, he left Libya for Zurich where he settled down for a long time.

According to the security file of the Muammar Gaddafi era, Banani is one of the most active members of the international organization of the Muslim Brotherhood. He is also one of the most outstanding Brotherhood figures in Europe.

According to other reports, Banani is closely linked to Egyptian Brotherhood figure and businessman Youssef Nada. Banani's son owns the Lord Energy Company which partners with the Qatari-Swiss company Glencore. The latter company won a contract for marketing Libyan oil. The Libyan House of Deputies called for revoking the contract.

Banani has had increased presence in Libya, following the downfall of the Gaddafi regime in 2011. He contributed to drawing up a plan for the return of the Muslim Brotherhood to the Libyan political stage.

The plan was unveiled at a conference that was covered by the Qatari news channel al-Jazeera. The founding of the Muslim Brotherhood's party in Libya in 2012 came against this background.

The man also played a major role in the Libyan economy, using Qatari money. This was why the Defense and National Security Committee at the House of Deputies called for including Banani in a list of 75 wanted persons that was submitted by the member states of the anti-terrorism quartet, namely Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, to Qatar last year.

Banani is one of the hawks inside Libya's Muslim Brotherhood. He prefers military solutions to political ones. He rejects the formation of a national army and wants to found a national guard instead.

He also views Malaysia and Turkey as inspiring models for rising Islamic powers. Banani hoped that the political rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in both Egypt and Tunisia would open the door for what he described as "political coherence" in the region.

Apart from Banani, other figures compete for the top post inside the Justice and Construction Party, including Salah al-Shalwi, Abdel Salam Aguida, Nizar Kaaoun, Mohamed al-Khadrawi and Saleh al-Mesmari.