Iraq on Thursday condemned the killing of former lawmaker Ahmed al-Alwani in Beirut as "heinous" and warned that anyone who uses his death to stir sectarian hatred will face legal action, in Baghdad's first full official statement since the Sunni politician's body was found in a Beirut apartment earlier this week.

Source: AFP via The Insight International

The Security Media Cell, which speaks for Iraq's security forces, said Iraqi intelligence services are working with the Lebanese authorities to establish how Alwani died. It said the case should be treated as a criminal matter and urged the public not to speculate about the motive before the investigation is finished.

The statement added that a committee set up to combat sectarian, ethnic and racial incitement is monitoring public statements and online content about the killing, and that legal measures will be taken against anyone found to have promoted hatred, targeted social groups or threatened public order.

One detained in Lebanon, two suspects fled to Syria, officials tell AFP

An Iraqi security official told AFP on Wednesday that a specialised Iraqi security delegation would travel to Lebanon to follow the investigation alongside Lebanese agencies. A Lebanese judicial official told the agency that initial findings pointed to three people being involved: a Lebanese national has been detained and is being questioned, while two foreign nationals fled to Syria.

Source: AFP

Lebanese security forces found Alwani's body on Monday night in an apartment in Beirut's Tariq al-Jdideh district. According to the Associated Press, citing security and judicial sources, three individuals — two Syrian nationals and one Lebanese national — had rented the apartment for two days for $200, and preliminary findings indicated the victim was hit on the head before being strangled. The investigation is being overseen by Public Prosecutor Judge Ahmad Rami al-Hajj and carried out by the Information Branch of Lebanon's Internal Security Forces.

Source: Associated Press via Voice of Emirates

His office says cameras tracked suspects minutes after his flight landed

In a statement on Wednesday, Alwani's office said surveillance footage showed several people leaving the apartment 14 minutes after his flight landed in Beirut. It said Alwani flew from Erbil on a Middle East Airlines flight that landed at Rafic Hariri International Airport at 4:41 p.m. on November 5, that a group left the apartment at 4:55 p.m., and that the suspects may have returned at about 11 p.m. and were seen leaving again at 11:57 p.m. The office stressed that these times do not establish when the crime was committed, and asked Lebanon's security and judicial authorities to identify the people in the footage and examine cameras at the airport, the building and nearby roads.

Source: Alwani office statement via The Insight International

Iraq's Parliament Speaker Haibat al-Halbousi said Alwani had died in mysterious circumstances and called for Iraqi and Lebanese authorities to work together to establish who was responsible. Iraq's ambassador to Lebanon, Mohammed Reda al-Husseini, has said the embassy is awaiting the final report from Lebanese security agencies, and Lebanese judicial authorities have recommended DNA testing to formally confirm the body's identity before it is handed to the family.

Family allegation against Hezbollah — no evidence made public

One of Alwani's cousins, Ammar al-Alwani, told Rudaw that Hezbollah was behind the killing, citing the former lawmaker's outspoken criticism of the Lebanese group and its allies in Iraq. That is an allegation: Rudaw reported it could not independently confirm it, no evidence establishing Hezbollah's involvement has been made public, and Lebanese authorities have announced no confirmed motive.

Source: Rudaw via JBizNews

Who Ahmed al-Alwani was

Alwani, 57, was a Sunni lawmaker from Iraq's Anbar province and a leader of the 2013 protests against the government of then Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. He was arrested later that year, sentenced to death in November 2014, and released in 2025 after more than a decade in prison. Mourners gathered in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar, on November 11 for a memorial. What happens next rests with the Lebanese investigation: the detained suspect's questioning, the search for the two men reported to have fled to Syria, and the forensic and DNA findings Baghdad says it is waiting for.