A military court in Beirut has sentenced two Lebanese nationals along with a fugitive Libyan man to life in prison and hard labor over charges of planning to murder Libya’s prime minister.

Military Examining Magistrate Fadi Sawwan made the ruling against Lebanese citizens Mehdi al-Hajj Hasan, his son, Haidar, and Libyan Abdel Salam Mohammed.

According to the senior judge, the convicts sought to carry out their assassination bid last June when they placed explosive charges inside a package bound for Libya.

The parcel was, however, seized by the Lebanese General Security before it could reach the North African state.

The two Lebanese men have explained seeking revenge for Imam Moussa Sadr’s disappearance along with his companions in Libya in 1978 as the motive behind their plot to murder the Libyan Prime Minister al-Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmudi.

Iranian-born Lebanese philosopher and prominent Shia leader, Imam Moussa Sadr, and two of his companions went missing during an official visit to Libya in August 1978. They were scheduled to meet with officials from the government of the Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s.

The case has been a long-standing sore issue in Lebanon, where authorities blame Tripoli for the disappearance of the three. Libya, nonetheless, claims that Sadr and his companions left the African nation for Italy.

This is while, there are allegations that the top Shia figure is secretly being incarcerated at a detention facility in the mostly desert Libya.

On the 31st occasion of the disappearance of Imam Moussa Sadr and his two comrades, Hizbullah called for action to force the Libyan regime to release them.
A statement issued by Hizbullah in remembrance of Sadr called for “recalling the tremendous sacrifices at all levels of the leader and the founder (of AMAL movement) for the sake of preserving Lebanon’s unity, identity and coexistence as well as safety of its people.”