BEIRUT: Lebanon may reduce or cancel the $11 million bail imposed for the release of Hannibal Qaddafi, son of deposed Libyan ruler Muammar Qaddafi, his lawyer and a judicial official said Monday.
Lebanese authorities arrested the younger Qaddafi in 2015 and accused him of withholding information about the 1978 disappearance of Lebanese Shiite cleric Mussa Sadr in Libya.
Qaddafi, who is now 49 according to his lawyer, was around two years old at the time of Sadr’s disappearance.
A judicial official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP a Libyan delegation met Lebanese judicial officials and President Joseph Aoun on Monday.
The delegation, he said, presented the judge investigating Sadr’s disappearance with “a copy of the investigations conducted by the Libyan authorities into the Sadr case, as well as transcripts of the interrogations of a number of political and security officials in the regime of ousted president Muammar Qaddafi.”
The official then noted “significant flexibility” from Lebanon in the Hannibal Qaddafi case, “with the $11 million bail to be reduced to the minimum... so that it no longer hinders Hannibal’s release.”
The judge also seemed open to lifting the travel ban imposed on Qaddafi, the official said.
Lawyer Laurent Bayon told AFP that the bail “should be significantly reduced or even canceled.”
According to Bayon, the bail was divided into two parts: “$10 million for the victims and $1 million as an appearance guarantee.”
The judge may decide to retain only the $1 million appearance guarantee, Bayon said, while noting that he nevertheless still aims to have the “unjustified” bail canceled.
Mussa Sadr — the founder of the Amal movement, now an ally of militant group Hezbollah — went missing during an official visit to Libya, along with an aide and a journalist.
Beirut blamed the disappearances on Muammar Qaddafi, who was overthrown and killed decades later in a 2011 uprising.
The official said that “the Lebanese judiciary will review the Libyan file and assess the information it contains to determine whether it helps uncover the fate of Sadr and his companions.”
Lebanon could reduce $11m bail for Hannibal Qaddafi: judicial official to AFP
https://arab.news/jx9c3
Lebanon could reduce $11m bail for Hannibal Qaddafi: judicial official to AFP
- A judicial official said a Libyan delegation met Lebanese judicial officials and President Joseph Aoun
- The official then noted “significant flexibility” from Lebanon in the Hannibal Qaddafi case, “with the $11 million bail to be reduced to the minimum”
Trump warns Iran of ‘very traumatic’ outcome if no nuclear deal
- Speaking a day after he hosted Netanyahu at the White House, Trump said he hoped for a result “over the next month”
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump threatened Iran Thursday with “very traumatic” consequences if it fails to make a nuclear deal — but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was skeptical about the quality of any such agreement.
Speaking a day after he hosted Netanyahu at the White House, Trump said he hoped for a result “over the next month” from Washington’s negotiations with Tehran over its nuclear program.
“We have to make a deal, otherwise it’s going to be very traumatic, very traumatic. I don’t want that to happen, but we have to make a deal,” Trump told reporters.
“This will be very traumatic for Iran if they don’t make a deal.”
Trump — who is considering sending a second aircraft carrier to the Middle East to pressure Iran — recalled the US military strikes he ordered on Tehran’s nuclear facilities during Israel’s 12-day war with Iran in July last year.
“We’ll see if we can get a deal with them, and if we can’t, we’ll have to go to phase two. Phase two will be very tough for them,” Trump said.
Netanyahu had traveled to Washington to push Trump to take a harder line in the Iran nuclear talks, particularly on including the Islamic Republic’s arsenal of ballistic missiles.
But the Israeli and US leaders apparently remained at odds, with Trump saying after their meeting at the White House on Wednesday that he had insisted the negotiations should continue.
- ‘General skepticism’ -
Netanyahu said in Washington on Thursday before departing for Israel that Trump believed he was laying the ground for a deal.
“He believes that the conditions he is creating, combined with the fact that they surely understand they made a mistake last time when they didn’t reach an agreement, may create the conditions for achieving a good deal,” Netanyahu said, according to a video statement from his office.
But the Israeli premier added: “I will not hide from you that I expressed general skepticism regarding the quality of any agreement with Iran.”
Any deal “must include the elements that are very important from our perspective,” Netanyahu continued, listing Iran’s ballistic missile program and its support for armed groups such as the Palestinian movement Hamas, Yemen’s Houthi rebels and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“It’s not just the nuclear issue,” he said.
Despite their differences on Iran, Trump signaled his strong personal support for Netanyahu as he criticized Israeli President Isaac Herzog for rejecting his request to pardon the prime minister on corruption charges.
“You have a president that refuses to give him a pardon. I think that man should be ashamed of himself,” Trump said on Thursday.
Trump has repeatedly hinted at potential US military action against Iran following its deadly crackdown on protests last month, even as Washington and Tehran restarted talks last week with a meeting in Oman.
The last round of talks between the two foes was cut short by Israel’s war with Iran and the US strikes.
So far, Iran has rejected expanding the new talks beyond the issue of its nuclear program. Tehran denies seeking a nuclear weapon, and has said it will not give in to “excessive demands” on the subject.
