BEIRUT: Lebanese security and judicial investigations into the killing of former Iraqi lawmaker Ahmed Suleiman Al-Alwani are focusing on the possibility that he was deliberately lured to Beirut and that political motives may have been behind his murder.
Al-Alwani’s body was discovered in an apartment in the Tariq Al-Jadideh neighborhood of the city, with preliminary findings indicating that the 57-year-old had been struck on the head before being strangled.
A judicial source told Arab News that investigators were not ruling out the possibility that the perpetrators were Iraqi rather than Syrian nationals.
Iraq’s Ambassador to Lebanon Mohammed Reda Al-Husseini said on Wednesday that the Iraqi Embassy was working to expedite DNA testing procedures to facilitate the repatriation of Al-Alwani’s body to Baghdad.
He said that the embassy was closely following investigations by Lebanese security agencies to establish the circumstances surrounding the killing and identify those responsible.
“We are awaiting what the investigations will reveal,” he said.
Al-Alwani’s media office described his death as a “premeditated assassination” and called on the Iraqi government to coordinate immediately with Lebanese authorities.
Suspicion has fallen on individuals who reportedly met Al-Alwani at Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport following his arrival on Nov. 5 and accompanied him to an apartment in the Afif Al-Tibi area of Tariq Al-Jadideh.
