Lebanon reinvestigates the case of Imam al-Sader disappearance

The attorney general in Lebanon Adnan Adoum decided to re-open the file of the disappearance of the Lebanese Shiite leader Mousa al-Sader in 1978.

Addoum asked the investigation judge to re-open investigation in a new complaint proposed by the families of Imam Mousa al-Sader and his disappeared friends since 26 years and interrogating all persons accused in the complaint including the Libyan leader Muammar al-Qathafi.

The attorney general gave the investigation judge the authority of issuing all judicial memorandums required by the investigations, including the warrant of arest in order to disclose all implications on the issue.

An initial case was closed against Libya in 1986 over the fact that evidences are not enough, but al-Sader family said last week in a new complaint that it has new information condemning al-Qathafi and other 17 persons.

In addition to al-Qathafi, the new complaint includes the former prime minister Abdul Salam Jalloud, and the former Libyan ambassador to Lebanon Ashour al-Firtas. The persons who file the case call for bringing the persons accused to the justice council. The highest Lebanese judicial commission whose sentences are cannot be appealed.

Imam Mousa al-Sader, the founder of the Amal movement disappeared since his visit to Libya in August 1978, together with his two friends in the visit. His assistant Sheikh Muhammad Yaqoub and journalist Abbas Bader Eddine.

In 2003, upon celebrating the 25th anniversary of Sheikh al-Sader disappearance, leaders of the Hizbullah party and the Amal movement strongly criticized the Libyan regime and accused it of being behind al-Sader disappearance.

For its part, Tripoli announed that the three men headed for Italy after their stay in Libya and retaliated to the accusations by severing diplomatic relations with Lebanon in September 2003. In August 1999, Rabab al-Sader, sister of the Imam said he is jailed in Libya.