LOC21:55
18:55 GMT
BAGHDAD, April 18 (KUNA) -- Iraq's higher criminal court has ordered the
release of 16 officials from the ex-Baath regime after being acquitted of the
charges against them, the Iraqi Ministry of Justice announced on Wednesday.
Haider Al-Saadi, spokesman of the Ministry, said the former defendants will
be freed soon after the completion of relevant legal procedures.
Al-Saadi noted that the ministry has already started the first phase of the
procedures by freeing three of accused ones, Mohammed Mahdi Al-Saleh, former
trade minister, Hamed Yussef Hamadi, former minister of information and
culture, Mahmoud Faraj Al-Samarrai, an expert in the field of Military
Industrialization.
He added that four others will be freed in the second phase, including
Abdulhussein Al-Zerjawi, secretary of the obsolete Baath party in Karbala, who
was charged with drying up Al-Ahwar marshes, Latif Mahal Hamud, the former
governor of Karbala, who was also charged with drying up Al-Ahwar, Hasan Azba
Thalj Dawood Al-Obaidi, former head of exterior service at the Baath's
intelligence, charged with humane crimes, and Fadel Salfij Al-Azzawi, charged
with drying up Al-Ahwar and genocide operations against Kurds. (end)
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