‘Iraqi VP death sentence reflects criminal accountability’

The court case, which began in May, covered the first of around 150 charges leveled against Hashemi and his aides for committing acts of terror in the country.

The fleeing Iraqi vice president has been in Turkey since April.

Hashemi is accused of involvement in bomb attacks against government and security officials over the past years, including a November 2011 car bombing in the capital Baghdad that apparently targeted the Iraqi prime minister.

On December 19, 2011, an investigative committee within the Iraqi Interior Ministry issued an arrest warrant for Hashemi after three of his bodyguards confessed to taking orders from him to carry out the terrorist attacks.

An interview with Saad al-Muttalibi, member, State of Law Bloc, from Baghdad, to further discuss the issue.

Q: Let’s talk about the significance of what has taken place. Of course, Mr. al-Hashemi is not in Iraq. Tell me the significance now, first of all, of the actual verdict that he has been found guilty. Do you think that the Iraqi government will be able to make sure that he serves that? Will they be able to get him back in Iraq?

Al-Muttalibi: First of all, the significance is that the justice system managed, finally, to link Mr. Hashemi directly to the death squad because the dead sentence in Iraq will not be issued unless there is a material link between an accused person and the actual crime.

The actual crime has been proven beyond any doubt that Mr. Hashemi was involved personally in issuing the orders of the execution of Iraqi citizens. That means that he is now sentenced to death by hanging.

    It’s a great victory for the justice in Iraq because it reflects the will of the justice system to act in accordance with the law even when the case involved a very high ranking Iraqi official -- even the vice president of the Republic of Iraq. That is a historic victory for the justice system.


Turkey, in the past, when Interpol issued the red card and requested Turkey to hand over Tariq al-Hashemi, the Turks said that because there is no sentence issued on Mr. Hashemi, they will refrain from delivering him to any authority.

Now today, the court issued the verdict.

Naturally, there will be a process of appeal by the defense to Mr. Hashemi. That is a legal system in Iraq. The culprit, in this case, has the right to appeal the sentence. This will be dealt by the Supreme Court, and the final verdict will either be verified or changed. We don’t know at the moment.

Turkey today is faced with a legal request from Iraq backed by a legal court order to hand over Mr. Hashemi to Baghdad.

I hope that this will not be a reason for further deterioration between Iraq and Turkey, and this will not cause a new diplomatic problem between the two countries.

Q: You exactly touched on my next question, I was going to ask -- because it’s definitely likely that Ankara will likely not abide by what Baghdad wants, my next question is that how do you think that this could affect the already deteriorating relations?

Al-Muttalibi: Baghdad needs to send a diplomatic mission now to all regional countries not only to Turkey, and maybe to venture further within Europe, the United States, Russia, China, to show that what has been happening in Iraq is a pure legal issue.

    It has nothing to do with politics. The court was not politically motivated. There was hard evidence linking the person to the death squad.


Therefore, a diplomatic mission is necessary now for Iraq, in particular with Turkey, to remind them of the important relationship between Iraq and Turkey, and to remind them of the importance of friendly, neighborly relationship, as Iraq today believes that we should have the best relation with all our neighboring countries.

Our constitution does not allow Iraq to interfere in any other country; therefore, I hope that wisdom and good thoughts in Turkey will prevail and they will assist the Iraqi system by handing over Mr. Tariq al-Hashemi.