Lebanese authorities have asked Syria to arrest and 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, Al Jazeera reported. The perpetrators and motive remain unclear. A Lebanese national has been arrested and is being questioned, the source said, adding that the identities of the two Syrian suspects had yet to be determined.

Lebanon’s top prosecutor, Judge Ahmed Rami al-Hajj, is personally overseeing the investigation, according to the country’s official National News Agency. The inquiry is being conducted by the Information Branch of the Internal Security Forces. Sources told AFP that early findings suggest a possible financial angle, but investigators are still examining the motive.

Lebanese media reported that al-Alwani’s body was discovered Tuesday evening in an apartment in Beirut’s Tariq al-Jdideh neighbourhood.

Lieutenant General Saad Maan, head of Iraq’s Security Media Cell, outlined al-Alwani’s movements before contact was lost. Maan, who is following the investigation in Lebanon, told the Iraqi News Agency that al-Alwani arrived in Beirut on a Middle East Airlines flight from Erbil on Nov. 5 and was driven to a hotel.

Less than an hour after checking in, he left, telling reception staff he was going out with friends, Maan said. Staff told investigators that his companions spoke with a Syrian accent. The Iraqi News Agency reported that al-Alwani departed in a white Range Rover and made two calls to relatives in Iraq before contact with him was lost.

Al-Alwani represented Iraq’s western Anbar province and became prominent during protests in 2012 and 2013 against the government of then-prime minister Nouri al-Maliki. He was an outspoken critic of Iranian influence in Iraq.

Arrested in December 2013, he received a death sentence in 2014 on “terrorism” charges. He was released in April 2025 under Iraq’s General Amnesty Law after more than a decade in prison.

Iraq’s embassy in Lebanon says it is awaiting the Lebanese security agencies’ final report on the killing.

Sources