Fugitive Iraqi Vice President Hashemi receives third death sentence

The court tried Hashemi in absentia on Sunday and sentenced him to death. The sentence was the third death sentence handed to him since the Iraqi judicial authorities began to try him over terrorism charges last spring.

His secretary and son-in-law, Ahmed Qahtan, was also tried at the court and sentenced to death over involvement in the attacks on Shia pilgrims.

    The court in Baghdad heard that Hashemi ordered a car bomb attack on the pilgrims last December during the Ashura commemoration ceremonies in the southeastern part of the capital. The plot, however, was foiled by Iraqi security forces as they seized the car.


After being testified, the five bodyguards said they had received orders from Qahtan, who was passing Hashemi’s orders to them.

On November 1, the same court handed Hashemi and Qahtan their second death sentence for attempting to assassinate an Iraqi interior ministry officer.

The fugitive Iraqi vice president and his son-in-law received their first death sentence on September 9 over involvement in terrorist activities and running a death squad.

Hashemi is accused of involvement in bomb attacks against government and security officials over the past years, including a November 2011 car bombing in 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.

Hashemi later fled to Iraq’s Kurdistan region and then Turkey.