A Brazilian doctor has confirmed that Colonel Gaddafi has had plastic surgery to look young.
Brazilian Dr. Liacyr Ribeiro reveals Libyan leader asked for hair plugs and for belly fat to be injected into his face to avoid looking old.
Gaddafi's plastic surgery deep inside bunker
Ribeiro was in Tripoli in May 1994 for a conference on cosmetic breast surgery when he was approached by Libyan official Mohamed Zaid to come and meet someone.
He was escorted deep into a bunker where he was greeted by Gaddafi and told of his top secret assignment - he was to shave years off the Libyan leader's appearance by removing fat from his belly and injecting it into his wrinkled face. He also wanted hair plugs.
"He told me that he had been in power for 25 years at that time, and that he did not want the young people of his nation to see him as an old man," Dr. Liacyr Ribeiro recalled. "I recommended a facelift, but he refused."
The secretive four-hour procedure in 1995 was done, at Gadhafi's insistence, with local anesthesia because he wanted to remain alert. Midway through, the Libyan leader stopped to have a hamburger.
Gadhafi was worried a facelift would be too noticeable, so he opted for the less radical procedure, the plastic surgeon told The Associated Press.
In this photo released by plastic surgeon Fabio Naccache on Thursday March 24, 2011, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, right, and Brazilian plastic surgeon Dr. Fabio Naccache pose for a photo in Tripoli, Libya
"I warned Gadhafi that the effects of the operation I performed would last for about five years, that it had an expiration date after which the skin would sag and the wrinkles would reappear," Ribeiro said.
"He said he would call me if he needed me to come back," and about five years ago there was such a request, but Ribeiro had a family obligation. "They never called me again," he said.
At the time of the surgery, Gadhafi was 53, but Ribeiro said he looked at least 10 years older. A photo taken at the time shows the smiling doctor posing next to the Libyan leader, who wore a white suit, floral shirt and had pronounced wrinkles crisscrossing his face and neck.
After the procedure, "he looked like a 45-year-old man," the doctor said.
"Gadhafi is not looking very good these days," said Ribeiro, noting that the 68-year-old leader has appeared jowly in recent appearances, his skin puffy, loose and deeply creased. "To let potential patients know that I operated on him would be counterproductive."
Gadhafi is hardly the only world leader to go under the knife.
Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi owes his look to plastic surgery and a hair transplant – work also perfo
rmed by Ribeiro, according to media reports, though the doctor refuses to confirm that. And rumors swirled about Russian leader Vladimir Putin after he appeared last October with heavy makeup covering bruises under his eyes.
A surgeon with an international reputation, the 70-year-old Ribeiro has written two books on plastic surgery and taken part in conferences around the world on the topic.
It was at one such gathering, in May 1994 in Tripoli, that Ribeiro spoke about his specialty, cosmetic breast surgery.
Afterward, a Libyan official identified as Mohamed Zaid "came up to me and said he wanted me to meet someone who Libyans love very much," Ribeiro said. "Because of my specialty, I thought he was going to introduce me to his wife."
Instead, Zaid drove Ribeiro to a house surrounded by armed guards.
A few minutes later, the Libyan leader, wearing a long white tunic, entered the room, "shook my hand and greeted me, speaking perfect English."
"He was an extremely polite, intelligent, cordial and soft-spoken person who quickly told me what he wanted and why," Ribeiro said.
The Brazilian Plastic Surgeon Who Held a Knife to Gaddafi's Face
Gadhafi wanted an immediate operation, but Ribeiro needed a surgical team and the procedure was scheduled for January 1995.
It began at 2 a.m. in Gadhafi's bunker, which "had two fully equipped and very modern operating rooms, a gym and a swimming pool," Ribeiro said.
"He insisted on local anesthesia saying he wanted to remain alert," the doctor added. "He was a very calm patient."
In 1995, Dr. Liacyr Ribeiro held a scalpel to Moammar Gaddafi's throat & stomach for hours as the surgeon injected fat into the dictator's wrinkled face.
Sao Paulo-based plastic surgeon Dr. Fabio Naccache confirmed to the AP that he was part of the team and performed a hair transplant on the Libyan leader.
"Hamburgers were brought in for all and surgery was interrupted for several minutes while we ate," the surgeon said.
Afterward, Zaid handed Ribeiro an envelope "full of U.S. dollars and Swiss francs." He would not say how much money it contained.
"All I can say is that it was more than I would charge for my services in Brazil," he said.
Before his death in 2011, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi had been Libya’s leader from 1977 to August 2011. He was ousted out of office after the Libyan people revolted against him, terming him a ‘dictator’.
He was later killed in a Libyan desert as he fled towards the border. During his term in office, Gaddafi was a wealthy man and was known to a large extent to get what he wanted when he wanted it.
This also includes younger looks, which were the main reason for his alleged celebrity plastic surgery. But is the alleged Gaddafi plastic surgery true?Colonel Gaddafi after plastic surgery? (image hosted by telegraph.co.uk)
In his latter years and certainly before his death, there was very minimal talk about the possibility of Gaddafi having plastic surgery.
This is mainly because he looked old and had wrinkles that would have been considered right for his age. Many people, however, feared that Gaddafi would use plastic surgery to his advantage in hiding from the forces hunting him down.
After all, he had more than enough resources from his country’s oil dealings that would make it possible to hire a top plastic surgeon to change his looks. However, this was not to be. Gaddafi was tracked down and killed before any of that could happen. The only alleged plastic surgery Gaddafi had had is during his term.
There had been speculation in the 1990s and early 2000s that Gaddafi had had plastic surgery. He seemed a lot younger than his age might have suggested. Some pictures were published to compare Gaddafi’s looks before and after the alleged plastic surgery but the leader never commented on the issue.
It was not until a Brazilian plastic surgeon Dr Liacyr Ribeiro spoke out that the speculation was confirmed. The Brazilian doctor claimed that he had performed cosmetic surgery on Gaddafi’s face back in the 1994.
The doctor claimed that Gaddafi consulted him for a highly secretive plastic surgery procedure to be carried out in Tripoli. The doctor later met up with Gaddafi and described him to be a ‘soft spoken and polite leader‘.
Gaddafi allegedly requested him to take out some fat from his abdomen and inject it in his face. He further added that the leader requested him to make him look younger since because he did not want people viewing him as an old leader.
The doctor advised him to opt for a face lift but Gaddafi declined this claiming it would be too noticeable. He did not want any cosmetic procedures that would be immediately noticed by his people.
The surgery is said to have taken four hours. During this period, Gaddafi was fully conscious because he had requested the doctor to use a local anaesthetic. At one point during the surgery Gaddafi even said he was hungry and burgers were brought for him and the surgical team.
When the surgery was overthe doctor stayed in Tripoli for about 10 days as Gaddafi healed. When the process was over, Gaddafi looked at least ten years younger.
Gaddafi had the plastic surgery when he was 53 years of age. After he had recovered from the surgery, he had the face of a 40 year old man and was supposedly pleased with the results.
However, after around five years, his wrinkles began to reappear just like his surgeon had warned . It was during this period that plastic surgery gone wrong pictures of Gaddafi were published. However, it is not a case a plastic surgery gone bad. The effects could have been reversed if he had had the procedure repeated.
