Brazilian Cosmetic Surgeon Recalls Gadhafi Facelift

A prominent Brazilian cosmetic surgeon has revealed that he operated on Libyan leader Moammer Gadhafi 16 years ago to give him a more youthful look.

"Gadhafi insisted on an imperceptible operation," said Liacyr Ribeiro, 70, who worked in two Rio clinics and is also said to have performed cosmetic surgery on Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

"I wanted to leave Gadhafi's face looking very smooth in 1995," Ribeiro told the Brazilian weekly Epoca.

"He said he had been in power for several years and that he didn't want young people to see him as old," he said.

"Although well bred and intelligent, Gadhafi to me seemed introverted, timid and cold," said Ribeiro, a former president of the Brazilian society of plastic surgery and a student of famed plastic surgeon Ives Pitanguy.

Ribeiro said he decided to reveal Gadhafi's secret after so many years "to contribute to understanding this historic figure around whom there is much speculation but little information."

The surgeon said he was contacted in 1994 by then Libyan health minister Mohamed Zaid while attending a conference on plastic surgery in Tripoli.

After Ribeiro's lecture on his specialty breast surgery, Zaid said he wanted to introduce him to someone very dear to him. Ribeiro thought it was a woman who wanted breast surgery.

"You are going to examine our leader," the minister told him when they arrived at Gadhafi's bunker.

Ribeiro returned in 1995 to operate on Gadhafi with his colleague Fabio Nacach, a specialist in hair implants.

Fat was removed from Gadhafi's belly and injected in the wrinkles in his cheeks. His eyelids were made to look better and a scar on the right side of his forehead was covered up.

Ribeiro said he did not bill Gadhafi, but the Libyan handed him an envelope stuffed with dollars and French francs.