A senior Lebanese official confirmed an earlier report by Asharq Al-Awsat on Moscow’s efforts to uncover the truth about the continued detention of Hannibal Muammar Gaddafi in Beirut.
Hannibal was detained more than three years ago on charges of concealing information about the disappearance of the founder of the Supreme Islamic Shiite Council, Imam Moussa Sadr during a visit to Libya in August 1978.
Political sources had earlier told Asharq Al-Awsat that Moscow decided to join the Syrian regime in working on this file at the request of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, brother of Hannibal, who currently resides in a mountainous area of Libya, under the protection of loyal tribal groups.
Saif al-Islam, who “maintains a good relationship, even by correspondence, with Moscow,” sent his representatives to the Russian capital, asking officials to intervene to release his brother who was arrested in Lebanon on charges of concealing information that is punishable by a maximum of three years of imprisonment, according to the sources.
The Director-General of the General Security, Major General Abbas Ibrahim, conveyed a message in this regard to Speaker Nabih Berri, and that Ibrahim met with Gaddafi at his detention cell in the Information Division prison.
According to the senior official, the Russian government has sent a letter to the Lebanese State, expressing its willingness to secure the transfer of Gaddafi’s son to the Russian capital in preparation for granting him the Russian citizenship.
