The Associated Press said that a Libyan delegation visited Beirut this week to reopen talks with Lebanese officials about the release of Muammar Gaddafi’s son, Hannibal, who has been detained in Lebanon for years.
The agency cited a legal official familiar with the case as saying that the Libyan delegation left Beirut after spending several days in Lebanon, where they met with the Minister of Justice and a judge heading the investigation committee into Al-Sadr’s disappearance.
The official described the talks as “positive” but did not say whether they had achieved any results, adding that the delegation is expected to return next week, and that the Lebanese and Libyan authorities are dealing with the two cases separately.
The official indicated that “there is no agreement” yet to release Gaddafi, while the agency also reported, citing judicial and security officials, that the talks aim to reactivate the suspended agreement between Lebanon and Libya, signed in 2014, to cooperate in the investigation into the disappearance of the Shiite cleric Musa al-Sadr in 1978.
The fate of the cleric has long been a controversial point in Lebanon, as his family believes he may still be alive in a Libyan prison, although most Lebanese authorities assume that Al-Sadr, who is now 94 years old, is dead, according to the agency.
Hannibal Gaddafi has been detained in Lebanon since 2015 after being kidnapped from Syria, where he was living as a political refugee. Lebanese militants kidnapped him to demand information about Al-Sadr’s fate. The Lebanese authorities released him and then arrested him, accusing him of concealing information about Al-Sadr’s disappearance.
