BAGHDAD, Nov. 29 — An Iraqi court on Thursday issued death penalty verdicts against four bodyguards of the fugitive Sunni vice president Tariq al-Hashimi over criminal charges, a judicial source said.
“The Central Criminal Court of Iraq (CCCI) on Thursday issued verdicts of penalties by hanging against four bodyguards of Hashimi for their involvement in the killing of an Iraqi civil defense major and his wife along with wounding their son in al- Jamia district (in western Baghdad) in 2011,” The spokesman of the Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) Abdul-Sattar al-Biraqdar told reporters.
Earlier, Iraqi judicial authorities said that dozens of Hashimi ‘s guards are accused of carrying out 150 armed attacks, including car bombs, roadside bombs and attacks against Shiite pilgrims and security officers.
Iraqi courts earlier issued four death sentences in absentia against Hashimi, one of Iraq’s top Sunni Arab officials, charges of orchestrating death squads.
Hashimi, a prominent critic of Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al- Maliki, has been living in Turkey since accusations he described as politically motivated were first made against him in December last year.
Soon after the U.S. troops fully withdrew from Iraq late last year, Iraq plunged into serious political row as Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki sought to arrest his political rival Hashimi, a leading member of the Sunni-backed political bloc of Iraqia, over terror charges.
Source: Xinhua, November 30, 2012
