Hannibal Gaddafi, the son of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. (Credit: AFP/Family album)
BEIRUT — Following a Lebanese court’s decision to release Hannibal Gaddafi on $11 million bail, the son of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi expressed hope for “a glimmer of truth” in the 1978 disappearance of Imam Musa Sadr and his two companions.
Gaddafi has been detained in Lebanon for ten years without ever facing trial, accused of "withholding information" in the Sadr case. Sadr was the former president of the Higher Shiite Islamic Council and founder of the Amal Movement.
"I say it today, with a clear conscience: divine justice has begun to take its course as it should," wrote his advisor and defense coordinator, Ines Harrak, on X on behalf of the still-imprisoned Gaddafi.
Harrak explained to L'Orient-Le Jour that while Gaddafi does have his mobile phone in prison, he is not allowed to use it to access social media, but the words she published on X come directly from her client.
Zaher Hamadeh, the investigating judge at the court of justice in charge of the Gaddafi case, heard the detainee on Friday for the first time in eight years and decided, following the hearing, to release him in exchange for a $11-million bail. The amount will be the subject of an appeal by Gaddafi's lawyers.
"I pray the Almighty God will honor the family of Imam Moussa al-Sadr and his two companions with even a glimmer of truth that may soothe the pain in their hearts and return them some peace after such a long wait, for truth does not fade with time," the X post continued.
Harrak described this statement as "a new step forward" after Friday's judicial decision, "to show that he shares the families' pain."
The Sadr and Badreddine families had, in statements Friday, contested Judge Hamadeh's decision. Sadr's family said Gaddafi continues, in their view, to provide information that could "help locate the places of detention of Imam Sadr and his two companions, in order to free them." The Yaacoub family, for its part, denounced "political interference."
Gaddafi was kidnapped in the Beqaa on Dec. 11, 2015, by an armed group that included the son of Sheikh Mohammad Yaacoub, former MP Hassan Yaacoub, who was held for seven months in connection with the case.
After being released by his kidnappers, who immediately handed him over to the Internal Security Forces' Intelligence Branch in Hermel, Gaddafi was summoned as a witness before Judge Hamadeh, who brought charges of defamation.
The case took a new turn, for the first time in ten years, with the Badreddine family — the civil party — approving the latest request for Gaddafi's release, filed last June.
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