CAIRO, Egypt: The leading international newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat last week on September 17 published an interview of Libyan Judge Muhammad Bashir al-Khaddar in which he revealed many secrets of the Gaddafi regime including Imam Mussa As-Sadr disappearance.

Judge Muhammad Bashir al-Khaddar was one of the most prominent judicial figures in Gaddafi’s Libya. Al-Khaddar also served as one of the most senior Libyan military judges in the Gaddafi regime.

Al-Khaddar, who also served as a senior legal adviser to the Libyan Ministry of Defense over the past 25 years, revealed that Shiite cleric Mussa as-Sadr, who disappeared from Libya in August 1978, was killed after getting into an argument with then Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Al-Khaddar also claimed that Gaddafi ordered the death of a number of senior Libyan officials, including former Libyan Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Bashari. He also revealed the truth behind the infamous Abu Salim prison massacre of 1996.

Some of the text of the interview regarding Mussa Al-Sadr is:

[Asharq Al-Awsat] What is your relationship to Mussa as-Sadr?

[Al-Khaddar] I have no relationship with him. I was the Chief Prosecutor of Tripoli when I was appointed to investigate his disappearance.

[Asharq Al-Awsat] What did you discover?

[Al-Khaddar] Mussa as-Sadr was killed…he was killed and buried in Sirte, and his body was later transferred to Sabha, and then to somewhere else. However there is no doubt that he is dead.

[Asharq Al-Awsat] Can you tell us the circumstances surrounding his death?

[Al-Khaddar] Musa al-Sadr had an internal and external agenda. On the day that he was killed he met with Gaddafi, and this meeting was very intense. As-Sadr told Gaddafi “you are an infidel” and Gaddafi came close to physically assaulting him. The intellectual debate between the two [Gaddafi and as-Sadr] continued for 5 hours. This [as-Sadr’s death] may have been [Gaddafi’s] reaction, or it may be part of a foreign agenda.

[Asharq Al-Awsat] Where did you get this information?

[Al-Khaddar] Gaddafi’s guards [told me], some of whom are still alive. They gave us a lot of information about Gaddafi.

[Asharq Al-Awsat] However how could the guards know what happened between Gaddafi and al-Sadr behind closed doors?

[Al-Khaddar] This clash took place between them [Gaddafi and as-Sadr] in Gaddafi’s tent, in the presence of the guards.

[Asharq Al-Awsat] I understand that some new information has been revealed in the case of Mussa as-Sadr’s disappearance. What can you tell us?

[Al-Khaddar] Yesterday they found the body of somebody who had accompanied as-Sadr; we are not certain of his identity. This body was found preserved in a freezer in the port of Tripoli. This freezer also held the bones of other victims, and more information about this will be released in the coming days. I believe that they have found the body of the journalist Abbas Badr al-Din [who disappeared alongside Mussa as-Sadr]. This is because he [Abbas Badr al-Din] was a relatively minor figure and so his body was disposed of in this manner after he was killed. As for the more important people who are killed, their bodies are hidden in cemeteries, not left like this.