But the uprising against Muammar Qaddafi has given her family hope that they may finally find out what happened to him if the Libyan leader is toppled, she told Reuters on Thursday.

"I am not gloating, but any oppressor who has done injustice to people will face this bad end," she said. "We are relying on God in this issue and on his will, we will accept (whatever Sadr's fate is).”

The family and Lebanon's Shiite community hold the Libyan leader responsible for the disappearance of Sadr, founder of the Shiite Amal movement, and two of his aides during a 1978 visit.

Libya says Sadr, a relative of former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, vanished after leaving Tripoli for Italy, but an Italian investigating magistrate has ruled he never arrived there. In 2008, Lebanon indicted Qaddafi over Sadr's disappearance and is seeking his arrest.

Reports surfaced in the past years about Sadr's fate. Some said he was dead while others said he was alive at a prison in Libya. None were confirmed and the family was left in limbo.

"This time I know for sure that we will know what happened to him. This time it is 100 percent certain that his fate will be revealed," Sadr said. "What is happening now was the last thing on my mind, I never really thought that something like this would happen. I am happy.”

Sadr, who was born in 1928 in Iran and migrated to Lebanon, took up the plight of Lebanon's impoverished and disregarded Shiite community before the 1975-91 civil war, which saw Amal develop into a powerful militia and political force.

While Lebanon was dissolving into chaos, Sadr preached religious tolerance as he sought to organize the Shiites.

He remains an icon revered by all Lebanese Shiites, including the powerful Hezbollah group whose leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, had demanded that his fate be disclosed.

The posters of the gently smiling Imam never disappeared from the streets in Shiite areas in the capital Beirut and in south Lebanon. One of Sadr's famous sayings — "Israel is an ultimate evil" — is very popular among young Shiite.

Many Lebanese Shiites never lost hope that he would return alive. Many songs have been written for him in the past 30 years expressing longing for him and vowing to bring him back.

"We are praying now, praying for him to come back. At last our waiting will come to an end and we will have him back," said Ali Abdullah, a Lebanese Shiite living in the southern suburb of Beirut. He was four years when Sadr disappeared.

"We never had a leader like him. He brought dignity to Shiites and showed us how to live with our heads up high."