Daily Star - Disappearance of Imam Sadr - February 28, 2008

Thursday, February 28, 2008


Court summons Gadhafi over Sadr mystery

By Agence France Presse (AFP)

BEIRUT: A Lebanese court has given Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi two months to appear for questioning over the disappearance of Lebanese Shiite leader Imam Musa Sadr 30 years ago. Judicial sources confirmed that the summons, which was posted outside the court on Tuesday, gave judges the right to issue an arrest warrant if the summons goes unanswered for two months.

Sadr, who founded the opposition Amal movement now led by Speaker Nabih Berri, disappeared while in Libya with two companions, Mohammad Yacoub and Abbas Badreddin, in 1978. There has been no trace of the three men since.

The court issued the summons in a private suit brought by the three men's families.

Libya maintains that the trio left for Italy on August 31, 1978, after their stay in Tripoli and that it has no idea what happened to them afterward.

Italy has told Lebanon that it will provide every assistance with its investigation.

Relatives of the three men have lodged a series of complaints with the Lebanese authorities demanding action in the case. Berri has also called on the government, the United Nations and the Arab League to help determine the truth.

On the 25th anniversary of the men's disappearance in 2003, another Shiite group, Hizbullah, called on Gadhafi to admit responsibility.

"Gadhafi, personally, knows the fate of Imam Musa Sadr," Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah told a rally in Beirut's southern suburbs.

Libya's Foreign Ministry called Nasrallah's remarks "illogical" and accused him of "hysteria." Shortly afterward Libya closed down its Beirut embassy, although it insisted it was doing so for security reasons and not because of the row over Sadr's disappearance. - AFP