Since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi, hopes have been reignited of uncovering the mystery behind the disappearance of founder of the Amal Movement, Moussa al-Sadr, and his two companions in Libya in the late 1970s. An unidentified body; a suitcase full of clothes; a slippery intelligence officer and a secret Bedouin prison have just caused further frustration.
In the fourteen months since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in Libya, many rumors have surfaced regarding the fate of Moussa al-Sadr, who, along with Sheikh Mohammad Yaacoub and the journalist Abbas Badreddine, went missing in Libya in 1978.
Hundreds of graves have been dug up, but the body of the missing leader has not been found. Thousands of prisoners have been released, but the three disappeared men were not among them.
despite the fact that Seif al-Islam was only a child when Moussa al-Sadr disappeared, he personally sought to offer financial reparations to the victims’ families back in 2003, which some took as a confession of guilt.An unidentified body was discovered, and garments thought to belong to Sadr, but neither yielded any clues. Some officials have dropped hints of secret prisons in a remote area controlled by Bedouins where some detainees are still being held.
Stories like this are everywhere, but so far none could be verified. Some family members of the missing men have become disillusioned with what they see as the politicization of their loved ones’ case and have given up hope of finding them alive.
“No one has an interest in revealing the truth,” Zaher Badreddine, son of the missing journalist Abbas Badreddine, told Al-Akhbar. “We cannot say for sure whether they are alive or dead, but as time passes, the likelihood that they are dead increases.”
A few weeks ago, it was announced that the body of the Imam had been found. The body was taken to Sarajevo for DNA tests, but the results came back negative – it was not a match to Sadr’s DNA. A suitcase of clothes investigators hoped to link to Sadr also underwent tests, but again proved a disappointment.
After consulting Sadr’s family, the committee formed by the Lebanese government and tasked with following-up Sadr’s case chose not disclose this incident to the media.
Several months earlier, Abdullah al-Senussi, former chief of Libyan intelligence, was apprehended in Mauritania. The committee was able to meet with him for a few hours before he was extradited to Libya.
“Senussi provided several accounts, but stopped short of stating that Moussa al-Sadr had been killed,” a source in the committee said, describing Senussi as “evasive” in his “attempt to protect himself and his boss.”
They also confirmed that they had managed to obtain some leads that would aid in their investigation.
As Senussi proved either unable or unwilling to divulge the men’s fate, attention began to shift towards Colonel Gaddafi’s son, Seif al-Islam Gaddafi.
The families of the three missing men have repeatedly denounced the Lebanese and Libyan authorities for their failure to interrogate Muammar Gaddafi’s son. Sources within Sadr’s family confirmed that, despite the fact that Seif al-Islam was only a child when Moussa al-Sadr disappeared, he personally sought to offer financial reparations to the victims’ families back in 2003, which some took as a confession of guilt.
People close to the Sadr family revealed to Al-Akhbar that authorities have begun interrogating several senior officers from Gaddafi’s inner circle, as well as pursuing others thought to be in possession of information on the missing Imam and his companions.
But after 34 years of false hope and crushing disappointment, sharp divisions have arisen within the families between those who still hope to find the men and others who are sure they were killed and wish to close this chapter and move on.
“After the disappearance of the three men, we now are being sidelined and kept in the dark about the investigations,” said Zaher Badreddine, adding that his father’s case is being exploited for political purposes in a very crude manner.
Badreddine went on to say that Libyan diplomats confirmed to him that the missing men had been executed, “but did not provide any proof of this.”
Gaddafi’s secretary, claimed that Moussa al-Sadr, Mohammad Yaacoub and Abbas Badreddine had been executed on the spot by Libyan minister Taha Sharif Bin Amer. But the latter, passed away in April 1978, five months before the three men went missing.Badreddine characterized the investigation as “a masquerade,” complaining that his father’s disappearance “has become an object of propaganda and publicity, rather than a national cause.”
Ali Yaacoub, son of the disappeared Sheikh Mohammad Yaacoub, is also disillusioned with Lebanese efforts to discover the fate of the missing men, and even implied a conspiracy to bury the truth.
“There is a huge mystery surrounding the parties involved, along with Gaddafi, in the disappearance,” he said.
Sheikh Yaacoub’s son expressed dismay that the issue has not been followed up on with any serious action, but rather been turned into fodder for pompous political grandstanding.
He went on to criticize the committee’s lack of professionalism, pointing out that the delegation waited six months while Senussi was in Mauritania and only sent a delegation when the families held a rally. By then they were too late and only had a few hours with the suspect before he was handed over the Libyan authorities.
“Someone like Senussi had four decades of experience in intelligence, and would therefore not have fallen easy prey to a committee comprising three people who are unfamiliar with the simplest rules of intelligence work,” Yaacoub said.
Some of the families of the disappeared requested that the follow-up committee be supplemented with experts and professional investigators, as well as judges, “but officials have deliberately sought to have a small committee almost confined to one person – further proof that there is something mysterious about this case,” Yaacoub insisted.
Sources familiar with the case pointed out that there have been discouraging signs coming from the Libyan side. Some Libyan officials reportedly offered to provide “aid and investments” to Lebanon, particularly in Shia areas, leading these sources to speculate that the Libyans are trying to put the issue to rest.
Sadr’s family, meanwhile, insists he is still alive.
“All the accounts concerning [Sadr’s] immediate liquidation are contradictory and incomplete, and no evidence exists to corroborate them,” a source close to the family told Al-Akhbar.
The family is also clinging to the announcement by the Libyan justice minister regarding the existence of remote jails in Bedouin areas, beyond the control of the authorities, in which detainees may continue to be held.The source cited, as an example, the account given by Gaddafi’s secretary, Ahmed Ramadan, who claimed that Moussa al-Sadr, Mohammad Yaacoub and Abbas Badreddine had been executed on the spot by Libyan minister Taha Sharif Bin Amer. But the latter, according to this source, passed away in April 1978, five months before the three men went missing.
The source also pointed to claims made by Revolutionary Council member Abdul-Moneim al-Huni, who gave six different accounts of the case, but later claimed to have merely attached Sadr’s name to his story to push the investigation towards uncovering the fate of his relative, the pilot Lt. Col. al-Yazaji, who had died in unknown circumstances.
Cases of prisoners emerging from Libyan prisons after having been missing decades has also bolstered the family’s hopes. Ahmed al-Zubair al-Senussi, a political dissident, was held for 31 years, and was 91 years old when he was finally released.
The family is also clinging to the announcement by the Libyan justice minister regarding the existence of remote jails in Bedouin areas, beyond the control of the authorities, in which detainees may continue to be held.
“Claiming that Sadr is dead is not right, whether we are speaking from a moral, legal, religious or even logical standpoint,” a source close to the family said.
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