Gadhafi Aide: Moussa al-Sadr was 'Liquidated' in Libya
Revered Lebanese spiritual leader Moussa al-Sadr, who went missing in Libya in 1978, was "liquidated" at the time, a former aide to Moammar Gadhafi said Wednesday.
The fate of the Iranian-born Shiite cleric has been unknown since he vanished during a trip to Libya aimed at negotiating an end to Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war.
Ahmed Ramadan, one of the most influential people in Gadhafi's entourage, said Wednesday on Al-Aan television that al-Sadr disappeared following a meeting with the late Libyan dictator soon after arriving in Tripoli.
"I bear witness that (Sadr) came... he arrived in Libya," Ramadan said on the Dubai-based channel, adding the meeting had lasted for two and a half hours.
Two officials then "took the guests," including the cleric and those who accompanied him, and "100 percent, what we heard is that he was liquidated," said Ramadan.
Ramadan said it was "possible" that Gadhafi had given the orders for Sadr to be killed because after the meeting, "He said: 'Take him'."
He said he received the information from "some sources at the time" as well as from one of the three officials involved who had since died, and that his statements could be corroborated by "complete files."
The remains of the cleric, who would have been 83 in April, were likely to be located in either Janzur, a suburb east of Tripoli, or the southern region of Sabha, he said.
Officially invited to Libya, he arrived there on August 25, 1978, with two companions Sheikh Mohammed Yacoub and journalist Abbas Badreddin. They were seen for the last time on August 31, 1978.
His disappearance had been a source of tension between Lebanon and the Gadhafi regime, which always maintained that the cleric had left Libya for Italy.
Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, the son of Moammar Gadhafi, reportedly confirmed to a Lebanese woman, closely associated with the Lebanese-Syrian security apparatus that controlled Lebanon until 2005, that Imam Moussa al-Sadr had been killed in 1978 at an order from his father, revealed the Kuwaiti al-Rai newspaper.
Arab sources told the newspaper that the woman, whose identity was not revealed, met Seif al-Islam in Athens in August 2010 to discuss the fate of the disappeared Imam.
The sources said that the meeting was not held until the Libyan official made sure, through a third party, that the woman speaks on behalf of the Sadr family in order to put an end to the dispute over the fate of the Shiite cleric and his colleagues.
Seif al-Islam confirmed that Sadr and his two companions were killed in Libya in 1978 shortly after meeting with Gadhafi, said the sources.
There is no hope in finding their remains and reports that they are still alive are not true, continued Seif al-Islam, they added.
He held his father responsible for the “execution” of Sadr and his companions, revealing that he decided “to get rid of them” a few days after being arrested by Gadhafi, stated the sources.
According to an indictment against Gadhafi issued by Lebanese authorities, Gadhafi ordered Sadr to be "taken away" after the pair got into a heated argument.
Abdel Moneim al-Honi, a former colonel who took part in the 1969 coup that brought Gadhafi to power, revealed in February that Gadhafi had ordered Sadr killed during his visit and that the cleric was buried in the southern region of Sabha.
Gadhafi was killed in his hometown of Sirte on October 20 after an eight-month armed rebellion inspired by a wave of pro-democracy protests that swept the Arab world.
Source: Agence France Presse
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