Date set for missing Musa Sadr probe, Gaddafi summoned

By: Karim Tellawi

BEIRUT, Lebanon: A Lebanese Magistrate Suheil Abdel-Samad, investigating the disappearance of Lebanon’s spiritual leader along with his two companions, on Thursday summoned Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and 17 other high-ranking Libyan officials for questioning in the case on March 16, 2005.

The development is the second during this week, after the Lebanese judiciary received from the Rome Tribunal the passports of Ayatullah Musa As-Sadr and Mohammed Yacoub, who went missing during a visit to Libya in 1978 along with their companion journalist Abbas Badreddine. The passports had been found in Italy.

The lawsuit was brought by Sadr's son, Sadreddine, and Yacoub and Badreddine's wives, Imtithal Suleiman and Zahra Yazbeck, against Gaddafi and the Libyan officials as prime suspects in the alleged kidnapping of Sadr and his aides.

The summons to the defendants will be delivered through the Lebanese foreign ministry and diplomatic missions abroad.

Ayatullah Sadr's disappearance has been the source of constant discord between Lebanon and Libya. On September 4, 2003, Libya closed its embassy in Beirut. However, the government of Libya denied that it had cut off diplomatic relations with Lebanon in a row over the disappearance of Sadr.

An initial case against Libya was closed in 1986 for lack of evidence. But Lebanon's public prosecutor said in August he would reopen the investigation after considering new evidence.

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