BEIRUT: A Foreign Affairs Ministry delegation headed over the weekend to Libya to follow up on the case the disappearance of the influential Lebanese Imam Musa Sadr.

“The case of Imam Sadr is a national issue and we will have several contacts [with Libyan officials] relevant to the case,” Foreign Affairs Ministry General Director Haissam Jomaa told reporters at Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport.

Jomaa, who heads the Lebanese delegation, will arrive in Libya later Sunday, only days after the capture and death of Col. Moammar Gadhafi, who was indicted by Lebanon’s Judicial Council over the disappearance of Sadr, a Lebanese Shiite imam and founder of the Amal movement.

The relationship between Lebanon and Libya had been severed under Gadhafi’s reign but reversed under the Libyan National Transitional Council, a group made of opponents of Gadhafi bent on the strongman’s removal.

The visit by the delegation comes amid reports that the NTC will likely declare the country as liberated following the death of Gadhafi in his hometown of Sirte.

Lebanon officially recognized the NTC in late August and the two sides have vowed to cooperate in improving ties as well as resolving the case of Sadr, who along with two companions went missing on Aug. 31, 1978.

Sadr, a charismatic leader and one of the pioneers of Shiite empowerment in Lebanon, Sheikh Mohammad Yaacoub and journalist Abbas Badreddine had been in Libya upon an official visit by Gadhafi.

In a statement released by Hezbollah Friday, the party said it looked forward to efforts by the new Libyan leadership to locate Sadr and his companions. Sadr’s family has also appealed to the new Libyan leadership to investigate the case.

In a June 23 interview with the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Anbaa, the head of the Libyan NTC, Mustafa Abdul Jalil, said he had evidence that could help answer the mysterious disappearance of Sadr in 1978 and promised to work on the issue as soon as Libya was liberated.