Lebanon Rejects Syria's Request for Gadhafi's Extradition

Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi on Wednesday dismissed a Syrian request for the handing over of Hannibal Moammar Gadhafi, who was taken into custody Friday in Lebanon after a brief abduction at the hands of an armed group.

Syrian authorities had demanded earlier in the day that Gadhafi be handed over through an official request, explaining that he had been granted political asylum in Syria.

Addressed to Lebanon's state prosecutor, the request was sent to the Lebanese foreign ministry which referred it to the justice ministry in line with procedure.

“The request did not consider Hannibal Gadhafi a criminal who is wanted for interrogation or trial, and thus the request for his rendition violates the 1951 judicial agreement between Lebanon and Syria,” Rifi noted.

“Before rushing to demand the handing over of Hannibal Gadhafi … the party that sent the request should have put him at the disposal of Lebanese judicial authorities for interrogation over the case of the disappearance of Imam Moussa al-Sadr and his two companions, whose repercussions have affected Lebanon and the Arab and Muslim worlds,” the minister added.

He also pointed out that Hannibal is still being interrogated by the Lebanese judiciary, “which alone has the right to take the appropriate decision according to the circumstances of the investigation.”

The judiciary had on Monday issued an arrest warrant for Hannibal on charges of withholding information linked to al-Sadr's case.

The 40-year-old son of slain Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi appeared in a video on Friday in which he announced that he had been kidnapped in Lebanon.

In the video, Hannibal described his captors as "loyal to the cause of Imam Moussa al-Sadr," the founder of Lebanon's AMAL Movement who disappeared while on a trip to Libya in 1978.

State-run National News Agency said Gadhafi was abducted Thursday “after being lured from Syria into a town near Baalbek” and that his captors had demanded "information about Imam Moussa al-Sadr and his two companions."

Later on Friday, the agency said Hannibal was “handed over to the Internal Security Forces Intelligence Branch after his captors left him on the Baalbek-Homs international highway near the northern Bekaa town of al-Jamaliyeh.”

Hannibal is married to Lebanese lingerie model Aline Skaff.

He was among a group of family members -- including Moammar Gadhafi's wife Safiya, son Mohammed and daughter Aisha -- who escaped to neighboring Algeria after the fall of the Libyan capital Tripoli.

On August 25, 1978, al-Sadr and two companions -- Sheikh Mohammed Yaaqoub and journalist Abbas Badreddine -- departed for Libya to meet with government officials.

The visit was paid upon the invitation of Moammar Gadhafi – Hannibal's father. The three were seen lastly on August 31. They were never heard from again.

The Lebanese judiciary indicted Moammar Gadhafi in 2008 over al-Sadr's disappearance, although Libya had consistently denied responsibility, claiming that the imam and his companions had left Libya for Italy.

M.T./Y.R.