BEIRUT: The Judicial Council is expected to issue a guilty verdict and death sentence in absentia next month against ousted Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi in the 33-year-old disappearance of Shiite cleric Imam Musa Sadr and two of his companions.

Sami Mansour, who presided over the session of Gadhafi’s trial Friday, said the court would issue its verdict on Nov. 18. In 2009, the Judicial Council indicted Gadhafi and 16 of his aides in Sadr’s disappearance.

While Sadr’s family said Monday he was still alive and remained a prisoner in Libya, Gadhafi’s former associate Abdel-Monem Houni claimed in February that Sadr had been killed and buried shortly after he was kidnapped.