Naharnet: Report: Sadr Was Alive until 1994, Arab States Hindering Capture of his Kidnappers

by Naharnet Newsdesk 28 January 2012, 11:21

Lebanon obtained conflicting reports that Imam Moussa al-Sadr was alive during the 2011 military operation in Libya, while others said that he was alive until 1994, reported As Safir newspaper on Saturday.
Informed sources told the newspaper that Sadr was alive in Libya until 1994 and after that “no trace of him remained.”
They did not specify whether he is still alive or dead.
They added that the Libyan judicial delegation that had visited Lebanon recently sought to obtain documents on the cleric’s disappearance that are in the Lebanese judiciary’s possession.
They explained that the documents Libya had on the case were destroyed during the 2011 military campaign that ousted Libyan ruler Moammar Gadhafi.
In addition, the sources revealed that some suspects in Sadr’s disappearance had fled Libya.
Some of the suspects have fled to Arab states, said the sources.
Furthermore, they noted that it has been very difficult to get in touch with them given the strict measures being adopted by the Arab countries to prevent their arrest.
For its part, Lebanon had urged the Libya delegation to speed up investigations in Sadr’s disappearance, saying that every delay will harm the case.
Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour held talks on Thursday with Libyan judges Mahmoud al-Yasir and Abdul Latif Qaddour on the ongoing investigation into the disappearance of Sadr and his two colleagues.
Libya is probing the mysterious disappearance of Sadr who went missing in Tripoli 33 years ago.
Earlier in January, Mansour visited Libya in order to follow up on the investigation.
He had held talks with the head of the Libyan National Transitional Council Mustapha Abdul Jalil and a number of other officials.
Sadr, a charismatic and revered Shiite spiritual leader, and two aides, Mohammed Yacoub and Abbas Badreddine, had been officially invited to Libya in 1978 during the rule of Moammar Gadhafi along with an aide and a journalist.
But the three men have not been heard of since and Tripoli had always maintained that the cleric had left Libya for Italy.
Since the mysterious disappearance of Sadr, ties between Libya and Lebanon have been strained.