Former Iraqi lawmaker Ahmed al-Alwani found killed in Beirut

Former Iraqi lawmaker Ahmed al-Alwani was found dead in an apartment in the Tariq al-Jdideh neighbourhood of Beirut on Tuesday evening, and Lebanese authorities are investigating the death as a killing, according to a security source quoted by Al Jazeera.

The source did not say how al-Alwani died. Lebanon's state National News Agency reported that the country's top prosecutor, Judge Ahmed Rami al-Hajj, is personally overseeing the investigation, which is being carried out by the Information Branch of the Internal Security Forces.

A Lebanese judicial source told the AFP news agency that preliminary findings point to strangulation. The same source said a Lebanese national suspected of involvement has been arrested and that two Syrian suspects remain at large. According to that account, the suspects drove al-Alwani from the airport to his hotel after he arrived in Beirut last week.

Arab News reported that investigators are examining the possibility that al-Alwani was deliberately lured to Beirut and that political motives may lie behind the killing. It said he was 57 and that preliminary findings indicated he had been struck on the head before being strangled.

Al-Alwani's office described the death in a statement on X as an "assassination" and a "treacherous crime", and demanded that those responsible be held to account. "This is not a passing incident to be brushed aside with condolences and condemnation," the statement said. "It is a crime that demands a firm official response and a transparent investigation that reveals who planned it, who carried it out and who else was involved."

Iraq's ambassador to Lebanon, Mohammed Reda al-Husseini, said the embassy was following the case closely and was waiting for the final report from Lebanese security agencies to "disclose the circumstances of the crime".

Al-Alwani, a Sunni politician, represented the western province of Anbar in Iraq's parliament. He came to prominence during the 2012 and 2013 protests against the Shia-led government of then prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, which demonstrators accused of sectarian policies and of marginalising Sunnis. He was also an outspoken critic of Iran's influence in Iraq and of Iranian-backed Shia armed groups there.

He was arrested in December 2013 in a security raid on his home in Ramadi in which his brother and several others were killed. He was sentenced to death in 2014 on "terrorism" charges and released in April 2025 under Iraq's General Amnesty Law after more than a decade in prison.

Tariq al-Jdideh is a densely built district of west Beirut, close to the airport road that leads into the city centre.