The body of former Iraqi lawmaker Ahmed al-Alwani was found in Beirut on Tuesday, according to Iraqi and Lebanese sources. Circumstances surrounding the former parliamentarian’s death were not immediately clear.
A statement issued by Lebanon’s public prosecutor at the Court of Cassation confirmed al-Alwani had been found dead inside a private residence in Beirut’s Tariq al-Jadideh neighborhood. The prosecutor also said he was personally supervising the preliminary investigation.
An Iraqi Foreign Ministry source not authorized to speak publicly told MBN Tuesday that the Iraqi Embassy in Beirut had received calls from al-Alwani’s family, saying they had been unable to reach him for four days, after which the embassy had contacted relevant Lebanese authorities to determine his whereabouts.
Al-Alwani, as a lawmaker representing Anbar province in Iraq’s Council of Representatives, became one of the most prominent voices during the 2012-2013 protests against the policies of then-Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
On Dec. 28, 2013, government security forces raided al-Alwani’s home in Ramadi despite his parliamentary immunity. An armed clash ensued, resulting in the deaths of his brother Ali and several members of his security detail, as well as members of the raiding force, before al-Alwani was arrested.
The raid was followed by a government crackdown on protest camps, and the province descended into a cycle of violence, culminating in its takeover by the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group in 2014.
In Nov. 2014, the Central Criminal Court in Baghdad sentenced al-Alwani to death on charges of killing two soldiers during the raid, and he remained in prison while his case continued to draw attention from Iraq’s Inter-Parliamentary Union and human rights organizations.
Al-Alwani was released in April 2025, more than 11 years after his arrest, following a decision by the family of one of the raid’s victims to drop charges in exchange for financial compensation and tribal mediation, which made al-Alwani eligible for release under Iraq’s General Amnesty Law.
Adapted and translated from the original Arabic.
