A probe into who abducted this weekend movie’s hero

Being aired this weekend, ‘Standing in the Dust’ hero, commander Ahmad Motevasselian is believed to be alive and imprisoned in Israel, decades after his abduction in Lebanese territory. Here’s a first-hand account of a journalist’s investigation into the issue.

The award-winning flick, depicted a 36-year-old dossier, in which the US- and Zionist regime-backed Phalange militia forces abducted four Iranian diplomats.

The Iranian nation, in its quest for the fate of those heroes, and particularly, the war-veteran turned military attaché, Ahmad Motevasselian, has kept the question on the agenda; in one of the attempts to find the truth, an Iranian journalist, on his journey to the heart of the field, once tried to explore the issue. The following is part of what he found out, first-hand and first-person perspective.

Once arriving in Lebanon’s Baalbek, back in 1995, I managed to find some of my good old friends; one of them was Hammieh, a high-ranking member of the Amal movement. Being their guest, as you know they are really hospitable, I changed the topic to the abduction issue. When I told him about the purpose of my trip, off the top of my head, he looked into my eyes and told me one of the militia members who was on the abduction team, had a large car repair center in Beirut.

Feeling so happy, I learned that the guy’s name was Robert Maron Hatam, with the alias of Kobra, who was the bodyguard of Elli Habiqah, the commander of the military checkpoint at Hajez Barbara around Beirut, where the abductees were captured. He was the one who personally captured Ahmad Motevasselian. I was speechless and eager to visit the guy. He described the person as a savage one, and told me how to find him. I had to go to an intelligence officer and pay some money.

Anyways, due to formalities that had to be made beforehand, I could not manage to talk to Kobra. And later on, just found out he had fled to Canada, as he was being prosecuted by the Lebanese judiciary.

MF/MG