Lebanese authorities asked Syria on Friday to hand over two Syrian nationals suspected of involvement in the killing of former Iraqi parliamentarian Ahmed al-Alwani. His body was discovered in an apartment in Beirut earlier in the week.
A Lebanese judicial source told reporters that preliminary findings indicate al-Alwani was strangled to death. The perpetrators and motives are unclear, though investigators are examining a financial angle.
Investigators at the Lebanese Public Prosecutor’s office asked Damascus to arrest and extradite the two suspects. The source added that the precise identities of the two individuals are yet to be determined, while a Lebanese national has been arrested and is undergoing interrogation.
Judge Ahmed Rami al-Hajj, Lebanon’s top prosecutor, is personally overseeing the investigation into the killing. The inquiry is being conducted by the Information Branch of the Internal Security Forces.
In a separate case, the public prosecutor’s media office stated that the Information Branch is also investigating five Hezbollah members arrested in the Batroun highlands in northern Lebanon.
Al-Alwani’s body was found on Tuesday evening inside an apartment in the Tariq al-Jdideh neighbourhood of Beirut. Lieutenant General Saad Maan, head of the Iraqi Security Media Cell, said al-Alwani arrived in Beirut from Erbil airport on a Middle East Airlines flight on the evening of November 5 and was driven to a hotel.
According to Maan, al-Alwani left the hotel less than an hour after checking into his room. He told the reception staff that he was departing with friends. Hotel staff informed investigators that the people accompanying him spoke with a Syrian accent.
Al-Alwani departed the hotel in a white Range Rover vehicle. He made two phone calls to relatives in Iraq before all contact with him was lost.
Iraqi President Nizar Amedi called for a swift investigation to determine the circumstances of the killing and to identify the perpetrators. He made the appeal on Wednesday after meeting Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam in Turkiye.
Al-Alwani originally hailed from Ramadi in Iraq’s Sunni heartland and formerly represented the western province of Anbar in parliament. He rose to prominence during the 2012 and 2013 protests against the Shia-led government of then-Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Critics had accused al-Maliki of sectarian policies that marginalised Sunnis.
Al-Alwani was also a vocal critic of Iranian influence in Iraq and of Iranian-backed Shia armed groups in the country. He was arrested in December 2013 during a security raid on his home in Ramadi, an operation in which his brother and several others were killed.
He was sentenced to death in 2014 on terrorism charges. He was later released in April 2025 under Iraq’s General Amnesty Law after serving more than a decade in prison.
Mohammed Reda al-Husseini, Iraq’s Ambassador to Lebanon, stated on Tuesday that the Iraqi embassy was following the case closely. He said the embassy is awaiting the final report from Lebanese security agencies to disclose the circumstances of the crime.
