Baghdadi Ali Mahmudi () (born 1945) is a Libyan politician who was Secretary of the General People's Committee (prime minister) of Libya from 5 March 2006 to as late as 1 September 2011, when he acknowledged the collapse of the GPCO and the ascendance of the National Transitional Council as a result of the Libyan Civil War. He has a medical degree, specialising in obstetrics and gynecology, and had served as Deputy Prime Minister to Prime Minister Shukri Ghanem since 2003 at the time he was appointed to replace him. He was a part of Gaddafi's inner circle at least prior to his escape in mid-2011. He was arrested in Tunisia for illegal border entry and jailed for six months, although this was later overruled on appeal, however a Tunisian court decided to extradite Mahmoudi to Libya under a request from Libya's Transitional Council. Mahmudi was released from prison on 20 July 2019. Background Mahmudi came from the Zawiya District of northwestern Libya. He was trained as a physician, and in 1992 was appointed Minister of Health and Social Security. In 1997, he was replaced in that ministry by Suleiman al-Ghamari and from then until 2000 Mahmudi was the Minister for the People's Committees' Affairs. For seven months in 2000 (March–September), he was the deputy prime minister for Services Affairs. Mahmudi then became Minister of Human Resources Affairs for six months, and then Minister for Infrastructure, Urban Planning and Environment Affairs for five months. In September 2001, he was appointed deputy prime minister for Production Affairs. On 7 March 2004, he became the deputy prime minister for Libya (Assistant Secretary of the General People's Committee). On 5 March 2006, Mahmudi was appointed to head the Libyan government, as Secretary of the General People's Committee; although it is believed by the United States and many other nations that Muammar Gaddafi was the de facto chief of state. In addition to being prime minister, he chaired the High Council for Oil & Gas which was created in September 2006 to improve decision making in the petroleum sector, as well chairing the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) which was created in 2007 to restructure state enterprises. Politics From 2006 until 2011, Mahmudi was the Secretary of the General People's Committee and headed the Liaison Office of the Revolutionary Committees. He also held the chairmanship of both the Libyan Investment Authority (one of the largest