Gaddafi spy chief involved in Sadr kidnapping: Report

Nuri al-Mismari said in an interview with al-Hayat Daily published on Saturday that al-Senussi contacted him during the first days of Imam Musa Sadr’s arrival in Libya to ask him to obtain three visas to Italy.

“I opened the passports and found out that one of them belonged to Imam Musa al-Sadr,” Mismari said.

He confirmed that Sadr never left for Rome, saying, “Sadr never entered Italy and Italy had nothing to do with what happened to him. A figure like Sadr would have obtained a special reception. He would have been officially received at the airport’s lounge and an airport official would have brought the passports after being stamped. Sadr did not go to Italy for sure.”

He added that a Libyan colonel who “had similar features and the same height as the Imam” disguised himself as the senior cleric.

    The impersonator traveled using Imam’s passport and then deliberately left it along with Imam’s prayer mat in a hotel in Rome, Mismari went on to say. He said the passports and prayer mat were left on purpose “in order to suggest that Sadr had left Libya, went to Italy and vanished there.”

Imam Musa Sadr and his two companions were kidnapped in August 1978 during an official visit to the Libyan capital, Tripoli, to meet with officials from the government of Gaddafi.