BEIRUT, Lebanon: Lebanon's Higher Judicial Council decided Friday to appoint Military Investigating Magistrate Samih Al-Hajj to look into the disappearance of Ayatullah Moussa As-Sadr.

Hajj will replace Magistrate Souheil Abdel-Samad, who quit the case three months ago in protest of the council's decision to send Hajj to Rome to follow up on the case with the Italian judiciary.

Information has surfaced that Sadr, whose disappearance has been widely blamed on Libyan President Moammar Gadhafi, was last seen in Italy.

Moussa As-Sadr was an Iranian philosopher and a prominent religious leader who spent many years of his life in Lebanon as a religious and political leader.

After studying in the Holty Qom, he for Holy Najaf to study theology under Grand Ayatullah Sayed Muhsin al-Hakim and Abul Qasim Khui.

The Sadr family was originally from Lebanon, and in 1960 Moussa As-Sadr accepted an invitation to become the leading figure in the city of Tyre. As-Sadr quickly became one of the most prominent advocates for the Shia population of Lebanon. In 1969 he was appointed as the first head of the Supreme Islamic Shia Council, an entity meant to give the Shias more say in government. In 1974 he founded the Movement of the Disinherited to press for better economic and social conditions for the Shi'ites. He established a number of schools and medical clinics throughout southern Lebanon, many of which are still in operation today.

In August 1978 As-Sadr along with his aides departed for Libya to meet with officials from Gadhafi's government. As-Sadr and his companions were never heard from again. It is widely believed that he was killed by Gadhafi. Some others have reported that Sadr remains secretly in jail in Libya.