Libya Says it May Have Found al-Sadr’s Remains, Mansour Denies

Libyan forensic doctors are carrying out DNA tests on human remains unearthed from a cemetery in Libya believed to be that of missing Imam Moussa al-Sadr.

Libyan government spokesman Nasser al-Maneh told al-Jazeera Arab TV network on Wednesday that the remains were taken to a hospital in Tripoli for the tests.

“Contacts were made with the Imam’s family and the Lebanese government after we received information and investigated it and reached the graveyard,” he said.

He added the results of the DNA tests will be issued soon.

Lebanese Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour, who was in the Libyan capital at the head of a delegation, returned to Beirut on Wednesday night following talks there on the investigation into al-Sadr’s case.

But in remarks published in al-Akhbar, Mansour denied al-Jazeera’s report, saying the probe into the case is ongoing.

“We’ve made strong progress in that regard,” he said.

Al-Sadr flew to Tripoli for a week of talks with Libyan officials in 1978. He was never seen or heard from again.

Libya had insisted the cleric and his two traveling companions left Tripoli on a flight to Rome and suggested he was a victim of a power struggle among Shiites.

At the time, Italian authorities found no evidence al-Sadr ever arrived in Italy.

Most of his followers are convinced that former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi ordered al-Sadr killed.