Libya liable for Moussa Sadr abduction

Iran’s Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem-Shirazi says Tripoli should take responsibility for the abduction of a Lebanese leader, who went missing on Libyan soil more than three decades ago.

“If an Israeli soldier hides somewhere, the issue is immediately investigated, but on the abduction of a great character like Imam Moussa al-Sadr there is no action,” Ayatollah Makarem-Shirazi said on Thursday.

Speaking to a high-ranking Lebanese delegation on the occasion of the 31st anniversary of the abduction of Imam Moussa al-Sadr, the prominent Iranian cleric described the Lebanese leader as an icon who belonged not only to Lebanon but to the whole Muslim community.

Ayatollah Makarem-Shirazi hailed Imam Moussa al-Sadr’s contributions to Lebanon, the Islamic Revolution in Iran and all Muslims, and called for more active investigation into his disappearance.

Khalil Hamdan, the head of the Lebanese delegation, thanked Tehran for its continued efforts to discover the fate of the senior Lebanese cleric.

Hamdan further referred to inquiries by the Lebanese judiciary authorities and the Iranian parliament, insisting that the cleric was “alive and held in Libya.”

It is widely believed in Lebanon that Imam Moussa al-Sadr, the founder of the Lebanon’s Amal movement, was kidnapped on the orders of senior Libyan officials while on an official trip to Libya in August 1978.

Accompanied by two of his companions, Mohammed Yaqoub and Abbas Badreddin, Sadr was scheduled to meet with officials from the government of the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

In 2008, the government in Beirut issued an arrest warrant for Gaddafi over Sadr’s disappearance.