Ex-Iraqi MP Ahmed Alwani found dead in Lebanon: What to know

The body of former Iraqi member of parliament Ahmed al-Alwani was discovered in Beirut Tuesday evening. The circumstances surrounding the death of Alwani, a key figure in 2013 Sunni protests against the government, are under investigation. 

What happened: Reports that al-Alwani was missing emerged around 8:30 p.m. local time (1:30 p.m. ET), with authorities later declaring him deceased. Iraqi ambassador to Lebanon Mohammed Redha al-Husseini told the official Iraqi News Agency that Baghdad is awaiting the report from Lebanese authorities regarding the circumstances of his death. 

Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported that Judge Ahmed Rami Al-Hajj is handling the case. 

Footage on Lebanese and Iraqi social media purportedly showed the discovery of al-Alwani’s body in the bathroom of a residence. 

The apartment in which the body was discovered is located in the Tariq El Jdideh neighborhood, south of downtown Beirut, according to the National News Agency. 

Who was al-Alwani? Al-Alwani, 57, was born in the city of Ramadi and studied geology in Baghdad before entering politics, according to Al-Arabiya. He was a prominent Sunni member of parliament who was previously arrested and sentenced to death by Iraqi authorities. He was detained in late 2013 in his native Anbar province in western Iraq at a time when Sunnis were protesting their marginalization under the post-US invasion government of former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. 

Al-Alwani was a prominent organizer of the protests. His entourage resisted the arrest, and his brother, five of his guards and two Iraqi troops were killed in a shootout before the detention, the Associated Press reported at the time. 

Al-Maliki’s government, which was dominated by Shiite politicians and close to Iran, was accused of neglecting Iraq’s Sunni minority after the ouster of Saddam Hussein. The Islamic State swept through northern and western Iraq in 2014 on the back of the protests the year prior, seizing Sunni majority areas in Anbar, Mosul and other parts of the country. 

Al-Alwani was arrested on terrorism charges and subsequently sentenced to death. He was released and acquitted in April of last year, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, an international organization of national parliaments. The IPU said at the time that it had been calling for al-Alwani’s release for years, alleging he was tortured in custody. 

It was not immediately clear when al-Alwani arrived in Lebanon.