The latest:
Lebanese security and judicial officials said Tuesday evening that former Iraqi lawmaker Ahmed al-Alwani was found dead in an apartment in Beirut’s Tariq al-Jadida district, days after flying in from Erbil. Officials said he suffered a blow to the head and was strangled. Lebanon’s cassation prosecutor, Judge Ahmad Rami al-Hajj, is personally overseeing the initial investigation, his media office said.
Details:
- The timeline: Lebanese security sources said Alwani landed in Beirut from Erbil and had booked a room in the commercial Hamra district before arrival, staying one night per hotel records before disappearing. Al-Arabiya reported he arrived on November 5 and made a video call to his family after landing.
- The apartment: Sources said Alwani moved to a flat in Tariq al-Jadida rented for two days for 200 dollars by two Syrians and a Lebanese national. Lebanon’s MTV channel reported that he was lured there. The tenants had not been located when officials spoke.
- The discovery: A Foreign Ministry source told Shafaq News that neighbors reported a strange smell from a 12th-floor apartment in a residential building in Tariq al-Jadida. Police entered overnight and found the body. The real estate broker had failed to reach Alwani two days earlier.
- The investigation: Senior Lebanese officials said intelligence services are questioning the taxi driver who picked Alwani up from the airport, and that a search is under way for the apartment’s tenants. Judge al-Hajj is directly supervising the work of the Internal Security Forces’ Information Branch.
- The phones: His family noted Alwani carried three mobile phones, all switched off after he disappeared, and relatives told Al-Hadath they had lost contact. Saad Ghazi, head of the Anbar provincial council’s security committee, told Rudaw he had been missing in Beirut for four days.
- Iraq’s response: A Foreign Ministry source told Shafaq News that Iraq’s embassy in Beirut formally identified the body after completing required procedures. Ambassador Mohammed Reda al-Husseini told the official Iraqi news agency that Lebanon’s judiciary assigned a dedicated judge and that Baghdad awaits the final security report.
- His record: Alwani, a Sunni Muslim born in Anbar in April 1969, served as an MP and chaired parliament’s economic committee. He became a leading figure in the 2013 protests across Sunni-majority provinces, and was arrested in December 2013 after security forces surrounded his home in Ramadi.
- Conflicting accounts: Reports differ on his sentence. One account says he received 12 years for killing an Iraqi soldier; Rudaw reported a death sentence in 2014 alongside five life terms. Accounts also diverge on his release, placing it in April 2025 or April of last year after roughly 12 years.
- The political profile: Al-Arabiya reported that Alwani was known for opposing the influence of Iran-aligned militias in Iraq and for broader criticism of Iranian interference. His brother, five guards and two soldiers were killed in the 2013 shootout during his arrest.
- A parallel file: Al-Hajj’s media office said the cassation prosecution is simultaneously following initial investigations by the same Information Branch into five detained Hezbollah members arrested in the Batroun highlands. No link to the Alwani case was asserted.
Background:
Alwani rose to prominence during the 2013 demonstrations in Iraq’s Sunni-majority provinces against the Shia-led government. He was detained on terrorism and incitement charges, and his arrest in Ramadi triggered a firefight that killed his brother, five of his guards and two soldiers.
Between the lines:
The reported circumstances point investigators toward a planned operation rather than a chance killing: a short-term rental paid by three men, a lure reported by MTV, three phones switched off at once, and a body found only after neighbors complained of a smell. Why Alwani traveled to Lebanon has not been established by any official account.
What’s next
Watch for Lebanon’s final security report, which Iraq’s ambassador said Baghdad is awaiting, the questioning of the taxi driver, any arrest of the three apartment tenants, and arrangements for repatriating the body.
