Published On 3/11/2025
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Last update: 22:55 (Mecca time)
Lebanon received from Libya the investigation file into the case of the disappearance of Musa al-Sadr, founder of the Amal Movement, whose fate remains unknown since 1978.
During Lebanese President Joseph Aoun’s reception of a delegation from the Libyan National Unity Government headed by Ibrahim Dabaiba, Libyan Minister of State for Communication and Political Affairs Walid Al-Lafi said that the delegation handed over to the Lebanese investigating judge (in the case of the disappearance of Imam Musa al-Sadr) the entire investigation file conducted by the Libyan authorities. He explained that the delegation expressed its readiness to cooperate in providing all data related to this issue.
The Shiite community in Lebanon holds the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi responsible for the kidnapping of Al-Sadr and his two companions, Sheikh Muhammad Yaqoub, and journalist Abbas Badr Al-Din, in Libya during a visit there on August 25, 1978, but the former Libyan regime denied the charge, stressing that the three left Tripoli for Italy.
The Lebanese News Agency quoted a statement from the official follow-up committee on the case of the disappearance of Al-Sadr and his two companions, saying, “The official Libyan delegation present in Lebanon met with the rapporteur of the official follow-up committee on the case of the disappearance of Imam Al-Sadr and his two companions. The representative of the Libyan Attorney General handed over a copy of the papers that he said constituted investigations they had conducted regarding the case of the disappearance of the Imam and his two companions.”
The statement indicated that the two sides “agreed to determine the channel of communication and cooperation in order to activate the work of the memorandum of understanding signed between the two countries regarding this issue, to complete investigations and exchange suggestions and information.”
The follow-up committee on the case of the disappearance of Al-Sadr and his two companions stated that the Libyan side had previously admitted during the memorandum of understanding between the two sides that “the former Gaddafi regime committed the crime of hiding the Imam and his two companions” in Libya.
According to a statement by the Lebanese presidency, President Aoun welcomed any step that would help in the ongoing investigations into the disappearance of Imam al-Sadr and his two companions.
It is noteworthy that Al-Sadr was born in the Iranian city of Qom in 1928 and received his first religious lessons there, before leaving for the Iraqi city of Najaf to complete his higher religious studies. He then returned to Iran after the July 1958 movement that overthrew the monarchy in Iraq, and founded the Amal Movement in 1974 under the name “Movement of the Deprived.”
Al-Sadr’s last appearance was recorded in Libya, which he visited with two of his aides on August 25, 1978, to hold a meeting with Gaddafi. The three Lebanese were last seen on the 31st of the same month, before they mysteriously disappeared completely, leaving their fate unknown until today.