Political motives suspected in killing of former Iraqi MP in Beirut

BEIRUT: Lebanese security and judicial investigations into the killing of former Iraqi lawmaker Ahmed Suleiman Al-Alwani are focusing on the possibility that he was deliberately lured to Beirut and that political motives may have been behind his murder.

Al-Alwani’s body was discovered in an apartment in the Tariq Al-Jadideh neighborhood of the city, with preliminary findings indicating that the 57-year-old had been struck on the head before being strangled.

A judicial source told Arab News that investigators were not ruling out the possibility that the perpetrators were Iraqi rather than Syrian nationals.

Iraq’s Ambassador to Lebanon Mohammed Reda Al-Husseini said on Wednesday that the Iraqi Embassy was working to expedite DNA testing procedures to facilitate the repatriation of Al-Alwani’s body to Baghdad.