On 2 September 2009, at the Rusafa Felony Court in Baghdad, four men, all Iraqi security force members, were convicted and sentenced to death for the robbery and brutal murder of eight bank guards at the the Zuwiya branch of the Rafidain Bank in Central Baghdad on 28 July 2009. The men were named as […]
Read MoreThe Huffington Post reported on Saturday 29 August 2009 that the lawyer representing Muntadar al-Zaidi has stated that the Iraqi journalist, jailed after hurling his shoes at former President George W. Bush, will be released next month after his sentence was reduced for good behavior. For previous posts on this matter see here, here and […]
Read MoreFive men, four of them US contractors were arrested by Iraqi police as a result of an investigation into the death of US businessman, James Kitterman, in Baghdad’s International Zone. It would appear that they are not however suspected of the murder itself. On 13 June 2009 the Washington Post reported that three of the […]
Read More[see also previous post] Former Minister of Trade, Abdul-Falah al-Sudani, was arrested on 30 May 2009 following the issue of a warrant from the court in Samawa (in Al-Muthanna Governorate in the south of the country). Alleged Crime: Sudani, a 62-year-old dual British Iraqi national, is being questioned about accusations of squandering public money and […]
Read MoreA recent report by the Commission on Integrity to the anti-corruption committee of the Council of Representatives, leaked to the Western media, set out the size of the problem facing the Iraqi government. The BBC report is here. In related news, a group of about 110 Parliamentarians have called for the Minister of Trade, Abdul-Falah […]
Read MoreApril Powell-Willingham, Chibli Mallat, Hiram Chodosh, Vincent Battle, Alan Zangana, Rashid Asali and Munaf Hamed met with newly elected Speaker Iyad Sammaraie at the Council of Representatives on May 5, 2009.
Read MoreOn Sunday 19 April 2009, the Council of Representatives elected Ayad al-Sammaraie as the new speaker. The post of speaker has been vacant since Mahmud Mashhadani, an outspoken Sunni in Iraq’s Shiite-dominated political system, resigned on 23 December 2008. Previous attempts to elect a speaker have resulted in stalemate because no candidate has achieved an […]
Read MoreOn Tuesday 7 April 2009, journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi successfully argued before the Court of Appeal that his sentence, imposed on 12 March 2009, be reduced from 3 years to 1 year for throwing his shoes at former President Bush in December 2008 at a press conference. His lawyers contended that his offence should be classified […]
Read MoreOn 26 March 2009, the Presidency Council (President Jalal Talabani, Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, Vice President Adel Abdul Mahdi) effectively vetoed the 2009 budget law by sending it back to the Council of Representatives which had approved it on March 5. see Musings on Iraq UPDATE: The Presidency Council did approve the $58.9 billion budget […]
Read MoreOn Thursday 12 March 2009, Muntadar al-Zaidi, the Iraqi television journalist who threw his shoes at President Bush in December 2008, was sentenced to 3 years imprisonment at the Central Criminal Court. The prosecution changed its request to the court and instead of assault of a foreign head of state contrary to Article 223 of […]
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