Lebanon asks Syria to arrest and hand over two suspects, judicial source says

Investigators at Lebanon’s Public Prosecutor’s office asked Syria to arrest and hand over the two suspects, a Lebanese judicial source told AFP. The source said their identities had not been established. A Lebanese national had been arrested and was being interrogated.

Al-Alwani, who formerly represented Iraq’s western Anbar province in parliament, was found dead on the evening of 10 November in an apartment in Beirut’s Tariq al-Jdideh neighborhood. The judicial source said preliminary findings indicated that he had been strangled.

Investigators are still seeking the motive. Sources told AFP that the initial inquiry pointed to a financial angle.

Al-Alwani’s arrival in Beirut

Lieutenant General Saad Maan, head of Iraq’s Security Media Cell, is following the investigation in Lebanon. He said al-Alwani arrived in Beirut from Erbil on a Middle East Airlines flight on the evening of 5 November and was driven to a hotel. Al-Alwani left less than an hour after checking in, telling reception staff he was going with friends, Maan told the Iraqi News Agency.

Maan said hotel staff told investigators that al-Alwani’s companions spoke with a Syrian accent. The Iraqi News Agency said al-Alwani left in a white Range Rover and made two calls to relatives in Iraq before contact with him was lost.

Lebanon’s top prosecutor, Judge Ahmed Rami al-Hajj, is personally overseeing the investigation, which is being conducted by the Information Branch of Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces. Iraq is sending a team to assist.

The former lawmaker’s political past and release

Al-Alwani rose to prominence during protests in 2012 and 2013 against the Shia-led government of then-Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, whom protesters accused of sectarian policies and marginalising Sunnis. He was arrested in December 2013 during a security raid on his home in Ramadi in which his brother and several others were killed. Sentenced to death on terrorism charges in 2014, he was released under Iraq’s General Amnesty Law in April 2025 after more than a decade in prison.

Iraqi President Nizar Amedi has called for a swift investigation to identify the perpetrators after meeting Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam in Turkiye on Wednesday. Al-Alwani’s office called his death an assassination and demanded a transparent investigation and accountability for those responsible.

Iraq’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mohammed Reda al-Husseini, said the embassy is awaiting the Lebanese security agencies’ final report on the circumstances of the killing.