BEIRUT, Lebanon: Sadreddin As-Sadr, son of Lebanon's missing top spiritual leader Ayatullah Musa As-Sadr, has called for immediate trial of Libya’s Leader Muammar Al-Qadhafi and 17 other Libyan accused parsons in the case of the disappeared cleric.

Meanwhile, family of Ayatullah As-Sadr, who was chief of Lebanon's highest Shia religious authority the Supreme Shia Muslim Council, said Al-Qadhafi offered financial compensation over the cleric's some 27 years ago disappearance on a visit to Libya, but the relatives rejected the money.

Al-Qadhafi failed to show up in for a hearing in Beirut on Wednesday 16 March, ignoring - to no one's surprise - a summons for questioning in the August 1978 disappearance of Ayatullah Musa As-Sadr and two companions.

Al-Qadhafi's absence could make him a wanted man in Lebanon if the government pursues the criminal suit raised by As-Sadr's family.

The legal case and the reported compensation offer are the latest twists in a mystery that has for more than a quarter century angered Lebanon's 1.2 million Shia community and has strained ties between the two countries.

Political and religious leaders of Lebanon have blamed Al-Qadhafi for the disappearance of As-Sadr and his comrades. The As-Sadr family strongly believes the Ayatullah remains in a Libyan jail.

Libya insists As-Sadr and his two aides left its territory on a flight to Rome at the end of their visit, and suggests he was a victim of an inter-Shia power struggle. Their passports reportedly surfaced in Rome during a forgery and impersonation trial late last year and were sent to Lebanon.

According to Sadreddin As-Sadr, the 50-year-old eldest son of the missing cleric, Al-Qadhafi offered financial compensation to the family last summer in an attempt to close the case, but the family refused.
No figure was mentioned, the family said.

The reported financial offer may be part of the Libyan leader's attempts to open a new page as he has since 2003 when he reconciled with the West, accepting responsibility and agreeing to pay $2.7 billion in compensation for the families killed in the 1988 bombing of a PanAm airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland.

Last year, Lebanon's prosecutor-general's office ordered after the As-Sadr family filed a lawsuit in Lebanese court that Al-Qadhafi and other senior Libyan officials be summoned for questioning about Ayatullah's disappearance.

Lebanese diplomatic sources said the Foreign Ministry informed Libya of the lawsuit. But neither Al-Qadhafi nor any of the other accused Libyans showed up for a hearing Wednesday.

Talking to Associated Press after the hearing, Sadreddin As-Sadr said: “Muammar Al-Qadhafi and the other accused refused to attend today's session. This rejection constitutes an additional proof confirming their penal responsibility.”

He said the families of As-Sadr and his companions are now demanding that Al-Qadhafi and the other accused be tried before Lebanon's highest court.

Before Wednesday's hearing, As-Sadr family lawyer Chibli Mallat had said that if the accused did not show up, the trial would proceed in absentia and “the case will be treated as one of a fugitive from justice. Qadhafi is a man wanted by Lebanese law”.

The investigating judge Suhayl Abdos Samad could ask for another summons and could seek Interpol's help in serving it.

Lebanon has no jurisdiction or power to enforce its decisions in Libya. But its issuing of a summons shows the importance that Lebanon is attaching to its investigation - and its willingness to see ties worsen over the case.

Mallat said earlier that the Libyan offer of money - which was not the first - was made through “Lebanese and Arab mediators well-connected in Libya” who came to Beirut and contacted the As-Sadr family indirectly “suggesting to them that Al-Qadhafi would like to solve this problem once and for all”.

In a joint statement to AP, Mallat and the cleric's son said: “The As-Sadr family wants the truth in this issue before anything else and the release of Ayatullah As-Sadr and his two companions. Also, full responsibility must be established and all those who participated in the disappearance of the imam tried.”

The Supreme Shia Muslim Council, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Hizbollah leader Hasan Nasrullah have repeatedly urged Al-Qadhafi to disclose Ayatullah As-Sadr's fate.        

Iran urged for legal strategies to clarify missing Lebanese leader fate TEHRAN, Iran: Iranian legislators vowed on Wednesday to follow up all legal strategies at home and abroad to secure the release of abducted Lebanese spiritual leader Ayatullah Mousa As-Sadr.