From left to right: Charbel Khoury, Laurent Bayon, Nawaf Salam, Inès Harrak, and Achraf Rifi. Photo provided by Charbel Khoury.
The defense team of Hannibal Gadhafi, son of former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, submitted on Tuesday to Investigating Judge Zaher Hamade a request to lift the $11 million bail the judge had set last Friday as a condition for his release.
Gadhafi, whose wife is Lebanese, was arrested in Lebanon in December 2015 on charges of “concealing information” related to the disappearance in Libya in August 1978 of Imam Moussa Sadr — then head of the Higher Shiite Council and founder of the Shiite movement Amal — along with journalist Abbas Bader al-Din and Sheikh Mohammad Yaacoub.
He had not been questioned since 2017 before being summoned on Friday to a hearing, after which Judge Hamade ordered his release in exchange for what was described as an exorbitant sum: $10 million as a guarantee for the victims’ families in case of conviction, and $1 million to ensure his compliance with future court summonses and to prevent him from evading justice.
In the same document, a copy of which was reviewed by L’Orient-Le Jour, the defense lawyers also submitted an alternative request: if the judge refuses to lift the bail entirely, they asked that it be reduced to an amount covering only the guarantee of their client’s appearance before the court.
By contrast, the lawyers representing the Yaacoub family on Monday requested that the bail guaranteeing Gadhafi’s court appearances be increased and challenged the decision to release him.
Three times the sentence
Gadhafi’s lawyers argued that the offense for which he is being prosecuted carries, under Article 408 of the Penal Code, a maximum sentence of three years in prison — while he has already spent more than three times that period in detention.
They also called for the lifting of the two-month travel ban imposed on their client. “Gadhafi’s presence on Lebanese soil poses a threat to his safety and to his life,” the defense argued in its petition, noting that “the emotional atmosphere surrounding this case makes it extremely sensitive.”
The lawyers further stressed that their client could not have taken part in the acts leading to the disappearance of the imam and his two companions, as he was only three years old at the time.
Before submitting their request, members of Gadhafi’s defense team — accompanied by their coordinator Inès Harrak and Tripoli MP Ashraf Rifi — met with Prime Minister Nawaf Salam.
“We met with the head of government as someone concerned with the preservation of public order, of which justice is an essential component,” attorney Charbel Khoury, a member of the defense team alongside lawyers Nassib Chedid and Laurent Bayon, told L’Orient-Le Jour.
“Salam is a man of the law and a magistrate of international justice,” he added, noting that “the discussions focused on the latest developments in the case.”
This article was originally published in French in L’Orient-Le Jour and translated by Sahar Ghoussoub.
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