Salame: Beirut will not remain a "scene of crime and security impunity"

Beirut (Agencies): Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam condemned yesterday the murder of former Iraqi parliamentarian Ahmed Al-Alwani in Beirut. The Prime Minister’s media office stated that Salam commended the efforts undertaken by judicial and security authorities to uncover the circumstances surrounding the crime. He stressed that “Beirut cannot remain a playground for crime and impunity,” affirming that protecting the capital’s security and the safety of all individuals on Lebanese soil is a matter that cannot be taken lightly.

On Tuesday, it was announced that former Iraqi MP Ahmed Al-Alwani was found dead in an apartment in the Tariq Al-Jadida area of the capital, Beirut. In a statement, Ahmed Ramy Al-Hajj, the Lebanese Public Prosecutor at the Court of Cassation, said the Public Prosecutor is “personally following the case and keeping a close hand on it” by directly overseeing the preliminary investigations into the former Iraqi MP’s murder, conducted by the Information Branch of the Internal Security Forces, with the aim of uncovering the crime’s details and determining the conditions under which it occurred.

For his part, Iraqi Ambassador to Beirut Mohammed Ridha Al-Husseini announced that suspicions are circulating around individuals who accompanied Al-Alwani from the hotel to the apartment where his body was found. He also confirmed in a statement yesterday that the embassy is following the Lebanese security investigations to uncover the crime’s details and identify the perpetrators. Al-Husseini clarified that the embassy is working to expedite DNA testing procedures and the handover of Al-Alwani’s body, in preparation for transporting it to Baghdad.

Suspicions have centered on Syrians and Lebanese who were captured on surveillance cameras in the apartment elevator, which they entered with Al-Alwani. Meanwhile, a security source stated that the Lebanese suspect is currently detained pending investigation, and suggested that the two Syrians may have left Lebanese territory. The source added that these three individuals “were the ones who brought the Iraqi MP from the airport to the hotel upon his arrival in Beirut,” according to AFP.

The source also noted that “security forces discovered the former MP’s body on Monday evening, and his identity was confirmed on Tuesday after his family filed a missing person report,” following his arrival in Beirut during the previous week. He explained that according to surveillance footage, Al-Alwani “voluntarily entered the building where his body was found with two individuals and went up to the apartment.” Preliminary investigations indicated that he “was strangled to death with a rope from one of the house’s curtains.”

For her part, Iraqi sources told Al Arabiya channel that Al-Alwani arrived at the hotel in Beirut on November 5 and left it in the evening with several individuals, suggesting he was killed on the same day. The sources added that Al-Alwani was carrying three mobile phones in Beirut, all of which were later turned off. They quoted his family as confirming that they had not received any ransom demands following his disappearance. The sources noted that members of Al-Alwani’s family had traveled from Iraq to Lebanon to follow up on legal procedures, adding that Lebanese authorities had refused to hand over the body until DNA tests were completed.

Al-Alwani is considered one of the prominent opposition figures during the government of Nouri al-Maliki. He was imprisoned for approximately 12 years before being released last year, 2025.