Kouchner meets Sadr’s sister, promises help

The French foreign minister vows to follow up on the case of Muslim cleric Imam Moussa Sadr, who has been missing for over three decades, in a meeting with his sister.

During the meeting, Bernard Kouchner told the Lebanese cleric’s sister, Rabab Sadr, that Paris was ready to help uncover his fate, the Moussa Sadr Center for Research and Studies said in a Saturday announcement.

Iranian-born Lebanese philosopher and prominent Muslim leader who founded the Amal movement, now led by Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, disappeared while in Libya with two of his companions, Mohammed Yaqoub and Abbas Badreddine, in 1978.

They were scheduled to meet with officials from the government of the Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s. There has been no trace of them since.

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi insists that the three men left for Italy on August 31, 1978 after their stay in Tripoli and that his administration has no idea what became of them afterwards.

According to the center, during the meeting, Rabab Sadr informed Kouchner about arrest warrants issued against Gaddafi and 17 other Libyan officials for their direct involvement in Sadr’s alleged abduction.

Kouchner, for his part, praised the role that Sadr had played in bringing peace and unity to Lebanon and said that he would have one of his advisors follow up on the case and stay in contact with the cleric’s family.