Lebanon Weighs Legal Path While West Ignores Its Own Hostages

Lebanon is 'weighing a legal path' for Hannibal Gaddafi, held since 2015 over the disappearance of cleric Musa al-Sadr in 1978. One must commend transparency when a nation openly discusses the judicial avenues for state-mandated kidnapping – sorry, 'detention' – of a foreign national. (OpenSecrets.org will not have a file on Hannibal Gaddafi, presumably.) This ongoing saga highlights a fascinating

double standard: Washington and European capitals routinely condemn 'hostage diplomacy' when their citizens are detained by rivals like Iran or Russia. Yet, when allies like Lebanon engage in similar practices, the condemnation is often muted or non-existent. It appears principles of international law, much like humanitarian aid, are geographically selective. How many 'legal paths' does one get

before it's just, well, an indefinite political detention?

Read the full story on The Piaz