Bushra Al-Khalil: The decision to arrest Hannibal Gaddafi is purely political and there is no legal cover for it
Captain Hannibal Gaddafi’s former lawyer, the Lebanese Bushra Al-Khalil, confirmed that Hannibal Gaddafi is an oppressed person, and the decision to arrest him is purely political, and there is no legal cover for him.
Bushra Khalil explained, during a symposium sponsored by the Italian website Associazione indipendenze, that Hannibal was kidnapped from Syria, where he was a political refugee, although there was a secret about the matter, out of concern for his life and safety, but Hassan Yaqoub, the son of one of those who disappeared with Musa al-Sadr, knew of Hannibal’s existence. He kidnapped him to Lebanon.
She indicated that after his kidnapping to Lebanon, the Lebanese Ministry of Justice was informed of the incident, and the Information Division was able to rescue him from the group that kidnapped him in Lebanon.
She continued by saying, “His kidnapping was carried out through lure through a call between Hannibal and Hassan Yacoub, and Hannibal accepted to meet him, but he did not know that he would be kidnapped. After the matter was revealed to the media, Aisha Gaddafi asked me to take charge of defending Hannibal in order to release him.”
She went on to say, “The head of the security apparatus at the time, who was detained by him, told me that they would listen to his testimony at the Palace of Justice to solve the problem. I then went to the Palace of Justice, accompanied by two members of the family, and met the judge who would ask Hannibal a few questions, then the matter would end and he would be released and return to Syria, as we believed at the time.” .
She went on to say, “We were surprised by the issuance of an indictment against him for concealing information, while there is no crime in Lebanese law for a son to conceal information against his father. We learned that the accusation was brought by the Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament, Nabih Berri, who is in charge of the Musa al-Sadr file and was assigned to this forensic investigator who “He was interrogating Hannibal.”
She stated that what Nabih Berri did was political interference in the work of the judiciary by appointing a forensic investigator to direct unjust accusations against Hannibal, noting that she objected to this accusation because he did not have the right to issue an arrest warrant and submitted a request to the President of the Court of Cassation to transfer the file from the forensic investigator to an ordinary investigating judge in preparation for the release of Hannibal. .
She pointed out that during that period, the authorities protested that they had a red notice from the international Interpol against him, adding, “We contacted the Ministry of Justice in the Tobruk government, which responded to us immediately and sent a copy of the amnesty decision that included Hannibal in general, and we submitted it to the Lebanese Interpol to lift the red notice and we succeeded in this.” There is no longer any Interpol warrant against Hannibal.”
She mentioned that this legal activity greatly angered Nabih Berri, so he sent someone to Hannibal telling him to depose Bushra Al-Khalil and he will be released, and this was another lure for him, according to her description.
She added, saying, “Unfortunately, Hannibal believed this matter, and he dismissed me, so the judicial legal work stopped, and the judicial work has stopped since then, because all the lawyers who took over the case did not work on it judicially in the file, because they were convinced that the matter was political and fell to Nabih Berri, and that the judiciary would not It solves the crisis.”
She stated that if the matter had been resolved judicially, within a year, we would have released Hannibal, continuing, “With judicial work, we were then able to arrest Hussein Yaqoub while he was serving his prison sentence, and Hannibal could not have continued for more than 6 months in pretrial detention.”
Bushra Khalil also said, “Judicial behavior could have solved the problem because Lebanon still has honorable judges. Nabih Berri could not control all the judges. He could control the judicial investigator, but he could not control all the judiciary.”
She also revealed that Hannibal had not communicated with her since that period, except only 3 months ago, and she spoke about this communication, saying, “He asked me to return to defend him, and I told him that I would work judicially on the matter and not wait for the political decision. My policeman was to stop all political interference, but Hannibal He objected to my opinion and said that the judiciary is politicized and there is no free judiciary in Lebanon.”
She continued, saying, “I do not like to be harsh on Hannibal. After 9 years in prison, he has the right to have this feeling. I asked him for a year to complete my work, but I asked him to think about this matter, and he has not contacted me since that time because he is not convinced to take the judicial path.” .
She concluded by saying, “There is no judicial and legal responsibility towards Hannibal for the disappearance of Musa al-Sadr, and as a testimony to God and conscience, this young man is wronged and his remaining in prison for this period of time is a great injustice.”
