Positive development between Lebanon and Libya in the files of Al-Sadr and Hannibal Gaddafi

Middle East: Youssef Diab
A Lebanese source said that the Libyan authorities are dealing seriously for the first time with the file of the founder of the Shiite Islamic Council in Lebanon, Imam Musa al-Sadr, and his two companions, Sheikh Muhammad Yaqoub and journalist Abbas Badr al-Din, since their kidnapping and disappearance in Tripoli in 1978. This change became apparent during the visit made by an official Libyan delegation to Beirut to put the cooperation agreement between the two sides into effect. The Lebanese side reciprocated the positivity, expressing cooperation in the case of the son of the late Libyan president, Hannibal Muammar Gaddafi, who has been detained in Lebanon for more than eight years.

The Undersecretary of the Libyan Ministry of Justice, Ali Ashtwi, arrived in Beirut last Sunday at the head of a security judicial delegation. The visit, which was surrounded in complete secrecy, lasted three days, during which he met with the Lebanese Minister of Justice, Henry Al-Khoury, the head of the committee following up on the Al-Sadr file, Judge Hassan Al-Shami, and other officials concerned with the case. A source accompanying the visit explained that “the meetings with the Lebanese officials concerned with the file of the disappearance of Imam al-Sadr were characterized by seriousness and focused on activating cooperation between the two countries in this file.”

The source confirmed to Asharq Al-Awsat that “the talks reached positive results, and that the Libyan side promised to respond to the correspondence of the judicial investigator in terms of providing information about 13 political and security figures from the pillars of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime, including Abdul Salam Jalloud, and obliging them to appear before the Lebanese judicial investigator.” Judge Zaher Hamada to interrogate them as defendants in the file.” However, the source explained that the Libyan delegation “was frank that there is a possibility that some or most of them are not alive and their traces have disappeared since the fall of Gaddafi’s regime,” stressing that “it was agreed to conclude a contract.” Other meetings between the two sides, whether in Beirut or in another Arab country; “To investigate the progress made in the Al-Sadr case, in light of its results, Hannibal’s fate will be determined.”

The visit comes as a translation of the agreement between the Lebanese Minister of Justice and his Libyan counterpart in Baghdad before the end of last year, which focused on activating the agreement signed between the two sides in 2014. A judicial source told Asharq Al-Awsat: “The positivity and flexibility that the delegation showed in the Al-Sadr file broke the… The current stalemate in the case of Hannibal Gaddafi,” noting that “immediately after the judicial summonses are implemented and the Lebanese requests are answered, the judicial investigator, Zaher Hamada, can decide on the request to release Gaddafi if he deems that the period of pretrial detention has been exhausted, or he can issue the indictment and refer it to the Judicial Council, and then The latter can make the decisive and irrevocable decision.”

The Lebanese judiciary is under great external pressure demanding the release of Hannibal Gaddafi, the latest of which was issued by Human Rights Watch a few days ago, which stated that “Hannibal is being detained arbitrarily on fabricated charges and has been in pre-trial detention for eight years.” She considered that “the charges against him are ridiculous,” calling for his immediate release. However, those concerned with this file reject these accusations, and confirm that Hannibal “was initially arrested for the crime of concealing information about the fate of Al-Sadr and his two companions, but it later became clear that he was responsible for the political prisons before the fall of his father’s regime, including the prison in which Imam Al-Sadr is imprisoned.”

Armed men kidnapped Hannibal Gaddafi from Damascus in December 2019, and transported him to the Lebanese Bekaa Valley across the illegal land border. It was found that the one who planned the operation was former MP Hassan Yaqoub, the son of Sheikh Muhammad Yaqoub, Rafiq al-Sadr, who was arrested and his companions for more than six months. , for the crime of kidnapping, torturing, and detaining Hannibal for days, before the Information Service of the Internal Security Forces was able to locate and free him.

The judicial source recalled that “the discriminatory Public Prosecution in Lebanon ordered the detention of Hannibal based on an arrest warrant issued by the Libyan authorities and circulated internationally through Interpol, and it became clear during his investigation that he was concealing valuable information about the fate of Imam al-Sadr.” The source explained, “The judicial investigator is fully aware that Hannibal was no more than two years old when Al-Sadr and his two companions were kidnapped, but his responsibility came later when he took over the administration of the political prisons, and it was proven by evidence and recordings that he completely knew Imam Al-Sadr and had a negative attitude towards him and his family.”