Lebanon Requests Syria Hand Over Suspects in Killing of Former Iraqi MP

Iraq is sending a team to assist Lebanon’s investigation into the killing of Ahmed al-Alwani.

Published on 13 Nov 2026

Lebanese authorities have asked Syria to hand over two Syrian nationals suspected of involvement in the killing of former Iraqi MP Ahmed al-Alwani, whose body was found in a Beirut apartment earlier this week.

A Lebanese judicial source told AFP that preliminary findings indicate al-Alwani was strangled to death, though the perpetrators and their motives remain unclear.

Al-Alwani, who came from Ramadi in Iraq’s Sunni heartland, was a vocal critic of Iranian influence over Baghdad. He had served more than a decade in prison after initially receiving a death sentence on “terrorism” charges in his home country.

Investigators at the Lebanese Public Prosecutor’s office asked Damascus to arrest and hand over two Syrian nationals suspected of involvement in al-Alwani’s killing, the source added.

The source said the identities of the two suspects had not yet been determined, and that a Lebanese national had been arrested and was being interrogated.

In a separate case, the Information Branch of the Internal Security Forces is investigating five Hezbollah members arrested in the Batroun highlands in northern Lebanon, according to the public prosecutor’s media office.

The official National News Agency said Lebanon’s top prosecutor, Judge Ahmed Rami al-Hajj, is personally overseeing the investigation into al-Alwani’s killing, which is being conducted by the Information Branch of Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces.

Motives under investigation

Investigators are still trying to establish possible motives for the killing, but the initial inquiry has revealed a financial angle, sources told AFP.

Al-Alwani’s body was found on Tuesday evening in an apartment in the Tariq al-Jdideh neighbourhood of Beirut, according to Lebanese media.

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 the head of the Iraqi Security Media Cell, Lieutenant General Saad Maan, who is following the investigation in Lebanon.

Maan told the Iraqi News Agency (INA) that al-Alwani left the hotel less than an hour after checking into his room, telling reception staff that he was leaving with friends.

Hotel staff told investigators that the people accompanying al-Alwani were speaking with a Syrian accent, according to Maan.

INA reported that al-Alwani left the hotel in a white Range Rover and then made two calls to relatives in Iraq before contact with him was lost.

Death sentence

Iraq’s President Nizar Amedi called for a swift investigation to determine the circumstances of the killing and identify the perpetrators after meeting Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam in Turkiye on Wednesday.

Al-Alwani, a Sunni politician, formerly represented the western province of Anbar in Iraq’s parliament. He rose to prominence during the 2012 and 2013 protests against the Shia-led government of then-Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, whom critics accused of sectarian policies that marginalised Sunnis.

He was also a vocal critic of Iran’s influence in Iraq and of Iranian-backed Shia armed groups in the country.

Al-Alwani was arrested in December 2013 during a security raid on his home in Ramadi, during which his brother and several others were killed.

He was sentenced to death in 2014 on “terrorism” charges but released in April 2025 under Iraq’s General Amnesty Law after more than a decade in prison.

Iraq’s Ambassador to Lebanon Mohammed Reda al-Husseini said on Tuesday that the Iraqi embassy was following the case closely.

He said the embassy was awaiting the final report from Lebanese security agencies to “disclose the circumstances of the crime”.

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