Prosecutor Rejects Appeal to Release ex-MP Yaaqoub

Lebanon's court rejected on Friday an appeal requesting the release of ex-MP Hassan Yaacoub who was arrested on alleged links to the December kidnapping of Hannibal Gadhafi, the state-run National News Agency reported.

South Lebanon's Public Prosecutor Judge Afif al-Qadi has rejected the appeals request by Yaacoub's defense team, NNA added.

The mother of Yaaqoub threatened to step up measures and said: “I will escalate measures and I will uncover all the hidden issues without taking into consideration any red lines.”

Yaaqoub has been in detention since December on claims that he was involved in the kidnapping of the son of slain Libyan President Moammar Gadhafi, Hannibal.

Hannibal was abducted in a Syrian area near the Lebanese border on December 11 before being smuggled into Lebanon's Bekaa region. He was handed over hours later to Lebanese security forces.

Lebanese authorities have charged Hannibal with withholding information about the disappearance of revered Shiite cleric and founder of the AMAL Movement Moussa al-Sadr, who vanished in Libya in 1978 along with two companions.

Yaaqoub is the son of Sheikh Mohammed Yaaqoub – one of the two companions who disappeared with al-Sadr in Libya.

D.A.

M.T.