Libya, Lebanon To Cooperate In Missing Imam Case

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — Lebanon’s foreign minister says Libya has agreed to cooperate with his country to determine the fate of a top Shiite cleric whose disappearance in 1978 has been blamed on former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

Adnan Mansour raised the issue of Imam Moussa al-Sadr during a meeting Thursday with the head of Libya’s interim government, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil.

Mansour said Libya agreed to allow a Lebanese judge to sit in on the Libyan committee investigating al-Sadr’s case.

Al-Sadr was the founder of a Shiite political and military group that took part in the Lebanese civil war. He disappeared during a trip to Tripoli in 1978.

The case has been a long-standing sore point in Lebanon. The imam’s family believes he may still be alive in a Libyan prison.