Former Iraqi awmaker Ahmed al-Alwani found dead in Beirut

What the report says

Lebanese authorities have opened a murder investigation after former Iraqi parliamentarian Ahmed al-Alwani was found dead in an apartment in Beirut, according to Al Jazeera’s reported account of the case. A security source told the outlet that al-Alwani’s body was discovered in the Lebanese capital, but did not explain how he died. Lebanon’s National News Agency said the body was found in the Tariq Al-Jadeeda area and described the death as a murder, while judicial authorities were reported to be overseeing the inquiry.

Al-Alwani’s office said his death was an assassination and called for a transparent investigation. A Lebanese judicial source told AFP, as cited by Al Jazeera, that early findings suggested he had been strangled and that one Lebanese suspect had been arrested, with two Syrian suspects still being sought. The source also said the men had taken al-Alwani from the airport to his hotel after he arrived in Beirut the previous week.

Al-Alwani was a Sunni politician who represented Anbar province in Iraq’s parliament and became known during the 2012-2013 protests against the government of then-Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. He was arrested in 2013, later sentenced to death on terrorism charges in 2014, and released in April 2025 under Iraq’s general amnesty law. Iraq’s embassy in Beirut said it was monitoring the case and awaiting the final Lebanese security report. Cautiously, the case also highlights the sensitive cross-border dimensions of Iraqi political figures seeking refuge or travel in Lebanon.