The body of Ahmed al-Alwani left Beirut for Baghdad on Saturday 14 November 2026, while the Lebanese investigation remains focused on those who accompanied him before his death. Lebanese television reports refer to their passage through Wadi Khaled on the Syrian border. This alleged route does not at this stage constitute a public judicial finding.
The Iraqi ambassador to Lebanon, Mohammad Reda al-Husseini, announced the departure of the coffin at 0905 hours from Beirut airport. A private aircraft carried the remains, accompanied by several family members. According to his statement, the Embassy had completed Lebanese judicial and security formalities and consular procedures. This announcement confirms the departure to Baghdad, not just the time of arrival in Iraq.
Al-Alwani: the trail of the passage through Wadi Khaled
The information relayed Saturday morning describes a group from Syria by Wadi Khaled, in northern Lebanon, then left after the murder. Another Lebanese channel had already reported on Friday, 13 November, that two suspects in this case had taken an unofficial passage through the area to enter and exit the territory.
These stories converge on a presumed route. However, they do not make it possible to establish the identity of suspects, their exact role or their possible sponsors. There are no public judicial elements consulted to confirm this reconstitution as a whole. Nor does Syria’s supposed passage establish an involvement of the Syrian authorities.
The information on cooperation with Damascus requires the same caution. According to television reports of 13 November, the Lebanese authorities transmitted photographs and telephone numbers to find two wanted persons. The aim would be to identify and locate them before a formal request for surrender in Lebanon.
A Lebanese judicial official, interviewed by the Arab-speaking press on Friday, challenged precisely the accounts claiming that their identity was already established. He indicated that Beirut had sought Syrian assistance in this identification. He presented their escape to Syria as a strong hypothesis, without announcing their arrest. No surrender of suspects in Lebanon is confirmed in the information verified for this article.
Last evening since Erbil’s arrival
The Iraqi statements of 12 November allow us to trace part of the journey of the former deputy. According to Iraqi security communications officer Saad Maan, Ahmed al-Alwani arrived from Erbil in Beirut on Thursday evening, November 5. He left the airport by taxi and reached a hotel near Raouché.
Less than an hour after taking his room, he would have come out explaining to the staff that friends were coming to pick him up. Saad Maan reported that employees described interlocutors speaking with a Syrian accent and a white Range Rover car. These testimonies relate to persons seen with him, not sufficient to establish their nationality or guilt.
According to the same account, al-Alwani called his family twice. The last exchange came from Tarik Jdide’s apartment in Beirut. After several days without news, a relative contacted the embassy on Tuesday, November 10. Diplomatic representation then coordinated the process with the Lebanese services.
The discovery of the body and the date of death must not be confused. The first published narratives differed on the timeline of the discovery. They do not make it possible to set the time of death with certainty. The Public Prosecutor ‘ s Office at the Court of Cassation, headed by Ahmad Rami al-Hajj, oversees investigations by the intelligence branch of the Internal Security Forces.
The owner of the apartment heard, the identity confirmed by DNA
Saad Maan also announced the pre-trial detention of the Lebanese owner of the apartment. He presented it as a precautionary measure related to the identification of tenants. This measure does not constitute a conviction or evidence of involvement in the murder.
On 11 November, the son of Ahmed al-Alwani arrived in Lebanon at the request of the Attorney General. The authorities collected his testimony and collected a sample for genetic comparison. The decomposition of the body had complicated a first visual recognition by relatives.
On Friday evening, 13 November, the Iraqi embassy announced that it had received the remains at the request of the family. She confirmed that the DNA analyses corresponded to the samples taken from the deceased’s son. She also mentioned a scanner examination and a report from the Lebanese forensic doctor, a copy of which was to be given to the relatives.
The Embassy indicated that the report clarified the causes of death, without setting out the medical findings in the communiqué consulted. It would therefore be incorrect to present as definitely demonstrated a particular method of murder. The hypothesis of asphyxia appeared in previous media accounts; it does not replace the reading of a public forensic result.
A case continued between Beirut and Baghdad
A former representative of the Iraqi province of Al-Anbar, Ahmed al-Alwani had chaired the Economic Committee of Parliament. His journey had been marked by his arrest in Ramadi in December 2013 and more than 11 years of detention. His release was announced in April 2025 in the context of the application of the general amnesty.
This trajectory explains the strong resonance of his death in Iraq. It does not make it possible to deduce the motive. The judicial information reported on Friday left open the questions of his relationship with suspects and the reasons for the murder.
The Iraqi embassy claims to continue to coordinate with the judicial and security services of both countries. The transfer of the body now allows relatives to organize funerals in Iraq. It does not close the Lebanese case: the identification of the persons sought, their possible location in Syria and the conclusions of the investigation are still expected.
Illustration: Beirut courthouse, undated archive photograph, Libnanews archive. This is not the place where the body was discovered.
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