BEIRUT: Slain Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s right-hand man, Ahmad Ramadan, says his former boss most likely ordered the killing of Lebanon’s disappeared Imam Musa Sadr, naming the influential figure’s alleged killers and saying some were alive and well.

In an interview with Dubai-based Al-Aan TV, Ramadan, a top Gadhafi aide and former head of the regime’s intelligence office, testified that Sadr had arrived in Libya and that Gadhafi had received him in his office.

“Of course, I testify that he had arrived in Libya. Moammar had received him in his office. Those who had received him were Taha Sharif Bin Amer, Maj. Gen. Faraj Abou Ghaliah and Maj. Gen. Bachir Hamid,” Ramadan said.
Ramadan said Amer had been Gadhafi’s communications secretary, Ghaliah, the leader’s administrative secretary, and Hamid a member of the country’s intelligence.

Ramadan, who appeared frail and spoke with a hoarse voice, said Amer had died but that the two others were still alive.
“Bachir and Faraj Abou Ghalieh are still there and they were the ones who took them,” Ramadan said, referring to Sadr and his two companions who went missing in 1978.
“They were the ones who liquidated him,” Ramadan told his interlocutor.

“They received him at the airport and brought him to meet with Moammar. The meeting lasted two hours and a half. Moammar and Taha stayed at the office, the other two transferred the guests,” Ramadan said.
“[I am] 100 percent [sure] that the talk that we heard is that he, Musa Sadr, had been liquidated. [I had heard this] from some sources at the time and one of them was Taha, God bless his soul,” he added.

In an article published Sept. 13, Time Magazine reported that Ramadan had been captured by Libyan rebels, describing him as the “man responsible for relaying all of the dictator’s orders until the fall of Tripoli.”

The report said Ramadan had attempted suicide by shooting himself in the head. He survived and was taken to Tripoli’s central hospital. Ramadan was later transferred to the rebel’s Tripoli command center and central prison.
Ramadan said that the two officials, Abou Ghaliah and Hamid, were the ones who escorted Sadr outside the office and had “liquidated” him.

“I don’t know where he was buried. But it is rumored that it is either in Janzour or Sabha,” Ramadan said, adding that Abou Ghaliah might have been captured by rebels.
Asked whether the order to liquidate Sadr was made by Gadhafi, Ramadan said: “Maybe, because after the meeting, they came and he [Gadhafi] said come and take them.

He also said that all stories that surfaced regarding the fate of Sadr were merely cover-ups, accusing Mohammad al-Rahibi, then head of the Internal Security, of fabricating the stories. “He was with them. But he is dead,” Ramadan said, referring to Rahibi.
“There are complete files at the Justice and Foreign [department] and in the Gadhafi’s Association for Human Rights,” he added.

In response to a question from The Daily Star, the journalist who interviewed Ramadan, Jenan Moussa, said the reason behind Sadr’s alleged killing was prompted by Gadhafi’s wishes to divide the Shiite community.
Sadr, a charismatic leader and one of the pioneers of Shiite empowerment in Lebanon, Sheikh Mohammad Yaacoub and journalist Abbas Badreddine disappeared in Libya in August 1978 when on an official visit from Gadhafi to the North African country.

Following his disappearance, the relationship between Lebanon and Libya had been severed under Gadhafi’s rule but reversed under the National Transitional Council, a group made of opponents of Gadhafi who were bent on the strongman’s removal.
A Lebanese delegation traveled to Libya Oct. 23 following the death of Gadhafi at the hands of rebels. The delegation has since returned but there has been no official statement about their visit to the North African country.