Alwani's death in Beirut: Political assassination or tribal vendetta?

Judicial and security authorities in Lebanon are investigating the circumstances surrounding the murder of former Iraqi MP Ahmed al-Alwani inside a residential apartment in Beirut, amid information that has so far ruled out financial motives or robbery behind the crime.

While a Lebanese suspect is in custody, preliminary information indicates that two other suspected accomplices fled to Syria just a few hours after carrying out the murder, though their full identities and nationalities have not yet been confirmed, Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported.

A judicial source told the daily that the information available so far "points to the suspected involvement of three individuals, including the detained Lebanese national, and two other foreigners who were found to have left Lebanese territory and entered Syria a few hours after the crime was committed." However, the source stressed that their full identities "have not yet been determined, and it has not been confirmed whether they are Syrians or Iraqis."

The source revealed that the two individuals "arrived in Lebanon on the very same day al-Alwani arrived in Beirut, and then left a few hours after the crime," noting that security agencies "last tracked their phones near the Syrian border."

The judicial source added that "there are currently no financial reasons or robbery motives explaining the crime," suggesting, in light of the current information, "the hypothesis of a political crime or a tribal vendetta."

The judicial source hinted that the perpetrators "lured al-Alwani from Iraq to Lebanon, rented the apartment for him to stay in, and turned it into the scene of their crime -- which favors the hypothesis of a political assassination."

Alwani had spent over a decade in prison in his home country on terrorism charges for inciting violence against the Shiite-led government.

Al-Alwani's brother, five guards and two troops were killed in an exchange of fire with security forces when his entourage resisted the arrest in the city of Ramadi in Iraq's western province of Anbar.

Al-Alwani was released in Iraq in April last year.