Sadr Died in 1998, Lebanese Daily Says

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Imam Musa Sadr died a natural death in Tripoli’s central prison, an informed source in Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC) has claimed.  The source told Al-Liwa Lebanese newspaper that according to the information he has obtained, Sadr died in 1998 in a cell in the basement of the jail.  He said Sadr’s body was kept in the prison’s morgue until the Libyan revolution began. “It means that his body was kept in the morgue for nearly 13 years.”  He added that investigations by the NTC revealed that the body was removed from the morgue and taken out of the central prison when revolutionaries closed in on Tripoli.  “Obviously, this was done by the Gaddafi loyalists to eliminate traces of the regime’s crimes in the past 30 years.”  He also said Sadr’s body has probably been buried in a cemetery near the prison adding that efforts are underway to identify the bodies buried there so as to determine the fate of Imam Musa Sadr.  He went on to say that no information has been obtained about the fate of Sadr’s companions Muhammad Yaqub and Abbas Badreddin.  In recent months, there have been conflicting reports about the fate of Imam Musa Sadr, none of which has been verified.  Sadr and his two companions went to Libya in August 1978 to meet with government officials. The three were never heard from again./129