Iraqi cleric, politician dies at 88 after long illness

BAGHDAD, April 7 (KUNA) -- Iraqi leading cleric and politician Sayed Mohammad Bahr Al-Ulloum died at 88 in Najaf on Tuesday following a long struggle with illness.
The deceased, the dean of Bahr Al-Ulloum family, was taken to Sadr Hospital after he began to suffer from renal failure, in addition to liver troubles.
Bahr Al-Ulloum was born in Najaf in 1927 to a family of a religious, social and political history. He graduated in the Najaf University for Religious Studies, and later received his PhD degree in Islamic Sharia from Cairo University in 1979.
He is father of MP Ibrahim Mohammad Bahr Al-Ulloum, a former Iraqi minister of oil, and Mohammad Hussain Mohammad Bahr Al-Ulloum, the Iraqi ambassador in Kuwait since June 2010.
Sayed Bahr Al-Ulloum was the first Iraqi cleric politician to sign the document "Democracy and Human Rights in Iraq" in 1988, which shed light on the Saddam Hussein regime's violations against the Iraqi people. The document later led to the emergence of the broad political alliance "Iraqi National Congress" which held its first conference in Vienna in 1992.
In addition, Bahr Al-Ulloum was a member of the delegation that visited Washington to explain the Congress views and ideas on Iraq, together with Masoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani.
After Saddam Hussein was overthrown in 2003, he was appointed member of the interim governing council. (end) mhg.msa