A Lebanese investigative judge issued on Tuesday arrest warrants in absentia against Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi and nine other Libyan defendants in the case of the disappearance of Imam Moussa al-Sadr and his two companions, Sheikh Mohammed Yaacoub and journalist Abbas Badreddine.
Judge Zaher Hamadeh is following up on the remaining necessary legal proceedings, with the warrants being forwarded to Interpol.
The Lebanese judiciary holds the regime of late Libyan leader Moammar al-Gaddafi responsible for the disappearance Sadr, who went missing with his two companions in Libya on August 31, 1978.
Hamadeh’s arrest warrant includes Moammar Gaddafi’s former intelligence chief Abdullah Senussi and Ahmad Ramadan, a top aide to the late ruler and former head of the regime’s intelligence office.
Lebanon’s National News Agency reported on Tuesday that the Foreign Ministry at the Libyan Government of National repeatedly rejected to notify the defendants in due process.
Therefore, Lebanon notified the Libyan authorities by post, as stipulated in the Code of Criminal Procedures.
Sadr was a highly revered Shi’ite cleric who founded the Lebanese AMAL Movement in 1974.
Separately, the UN Security Council listened on Tuesday to UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jan Kubis concerning the implementation of resolution 1701.
Speaking at the UN headquarters in New York, Kubis mainly spoke about the situation at the Lebanese-Israeli borders.
During the session, US diplomats focused on the issue of tunnels Hezbollah had dug into Israel under the Lebanese border, wondering why Lebanese authorities refused to cooperate with UNIFIL’s investigations.
The diplomats also stressed the need to prevent the entry of armed groups in UNIFIL's Area of Operations in South Lebanon from the Litani River to the Blue Line.
