Rifi: Gadhafi Won't be Handed to Syria, Lebanon has Upper Hand in his Detention

Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi stressed on Thursday that Lebanon has the final word in keeping or releasing Hannibal Moammar Gadhafi and that he will not be handed over to the Syrian authorities.

“We reiterated that the Lebanese judiciary has the final word in keeping Hannibal Gadhafi in detention or in releasing him,” said Rifi in a statement.

“As for the request to hand him over to the Syrian authorities, it is a dream that will never come true,” he added.

Syrian authorities had demanded on Wednesday that Gadhafi be handed over through an official request, explaining that he had been granted political asylum in Syria.

The demand was dismissed by Rifi after it was addressed to Lebanon's general prosecutor, and later was sent to the Lebanese foreign ministry which referred it to the justice ministry in line with procedure.

On the accusations fired by Gadhafi's lawyer, Bouchra al-Khalil, against Rifi alleging that the latter had a hand in kidnapping Gadhafi, the Minister denounced the reports and described them as “dangerous direct accusations.”

Gadhafi was taken into custody Friday in Lebanon after a brief abduction at the hands of an armed group.

The Minister has sent a letter to the General Prosecutor requesting that an investigation be opened into the kidnapping in a bid to reveal the identity of the abductors, added the statement.

The judiciary had on Monday issued an arrest warrant for Hannibal on charges of withholding information linked to Imam Moussa al-Sadr's case.

The 40-year-old son of slain Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi appeared in a video on Friday in which he announced that he had been kidnapped in Lebanon.

In the video, Hannibal described his captors as "loyal to the cause of Imam Moussa al-Sadr," the founder of Lebanon's AMAL Movement who disappeared while on a trip to Libya in 1978.

State-run National News Agency said Gadhafi was abducted Thursday “after being lured from Syria into a town near Baalbek” and that his captors had demanded "information about Imam Moussa al-Sadr and his two companions."

Later on Friday, the agency said Hannibal was “handed over to the Internal Security Forces Intelligence Branch after his captors left him on the Baalbek-Homs international highway near the northern Bekaa town of al-Jamaliyeh.”

D.A.

M.T.