BEIRUT, Aug 2 (AFP) - Lebanese attorney general Adnan Addum announced Monday that he had ordered the reopening of an official inquiry into Libya's role in the disappearance there nearly 26 years ago of Shiite Muslim spiritual leader Musa Sadr.
Addum ruled that a new complaint filed by relatives of Sadr and two missing companions against Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi and other officials contained new evidence that merited further inquiry and gave the investigating magistrate wide powers to summons the respondents.
The attorney general gave the judge "recourse to all judicial measures, including powers to issue arrest warrants and sub-poenas to throw light on this affair in the light of the new evidence submitted by the plaintiff's lawyers," a statement said.
Sadr's son Sadreddin and the wives of his leading lieutenant Sheikh Mohammad Yaqub and journalist Abbas Badreddin lodged the new complaint last week, accusing Kadhafi, former prime minister Abdel Salam Jallud and former ambassador to Lebanon Ashur al-Fartas of "kidnapping them on August 31, 1978".
A previous complaint was filed in June 2001 but the investigating magistrate closed his inquiry after ruling there was insufficient evidence as to the identity of those responsible.
Last year's 25th anniversary of the trio's disappearance sparked renewed recriminations here, particularly from Lebanon's two main Shiite factions Amal and Hezbollah, that prompted Libya to break off diplomatic relations.
Tripoli insists that Sadr and his two companions left Libya for Italy in good health on August 31, 1978.