Gadhafi Allegedly Shot Imam Musa Sadr Over Criticism of Green Book

Former Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi allegedly shot prominent Lebanese Shia cleric Imam Musa Sadr twice in the chest after Sadr criticized Gadhafi’s ideological manifesto, the so-called Green Book, according to Iraqi researcher, historian and media personality Hamid Abdullah. Abdullah presented the claim while discussing the 1978 disappearance of Sadr and his two companions, Sheikh Mohammad Yaacoub and journalist Abbas Badreddine, in a program published on YouTube.

According to Abdullah, the account is based on intelligence obtained by Iraqi intelligence services from a Libyan security official with connections to Gadhafi’s regime. He said documents concerning Sadr’s disappearance may still be held in Iraq. Abdullah traced the intelligence trail to former Libyan Colonel and Baathist Salim al-Hajani, who reportedly sought political asylum in Baghdad and informed Iraqi intelligence about Mohammad Ahmad al-Adl, a senior official in Libya’s external security apparatus. A meeting was subsequently arranged between al-Adl and Iraqi officials at the Iraqi embassy in Tunis, after which al-Adl allegedly became an Iraqi intelligence informant.

Abdullah claimed that al-Adl obtained information about Sadr’s fate from one of Gadhafi’s female bodyguards. According to the account, tensions intensified after Gadhafi’s government provided financial support to several Lebanese organizations during the civil war, including Sadr’s Amal Movement, while simultaneously attempting to promote the Green Book abroad. Copies were reportedly distributed in Lebanon, where Sadr read the book and privately dismissed its ideas as absurd, allegedly referring to Gadhafi as a “lunatic.” Abdullah further claimed that Libyan intelligence operatives had infiltrated the Amal Movement and intercepted the conversation before reporting Sadr’s remarks to Gadhafi, ultimately leading to his alleged killing.