Deputy PM welcomes return home of famous Iraqi Poet, Mudhaffar al-Nawab.

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Iraq ’s Deputy Prime Minister, Adel Abdul-Mahdi, has visited the famous Iraqi Poet, Mudhaffar al-Nawab, at his residency in Baghdad , to express welcome for his return home after a long absence, according to a Presidency statement on Sunday.   “Abdul-Mahdi met the Great Poet, Mudhaffar al-Nawab on Sunday, highly assessing the outstanding position, occupied by Poet Nawab in the history of   modern Iraqi Literature and his works that are still deeply dug in the memory of Iraqis,” the statement stressed.   It added that Deputy PM, Mahdi, had “expressed rejoice to see Nawab in the land of the country that is singing his poems every time and everywhere, highly assessing Poet Nawab’s struggle against dictatorship.”   “Poet Nawab, on his part, had expressed rejoice and gratitude for Vice-President Abdul-Mahdi, highly assessing his care for literature and writers,” the statement pointed out.   Noteworthy is that the Iraqi Poet Mudhaffar Abdul-Majid al-Nawab, is an Iraqi Poet, belonging to the famous al-Nawab Tribe. He was born in Baghdad in 1934, completed his academic studies in the College of Literature .   After the downfall of the Royalist Regime in Iraq in 1958, he was appointed as Technical Inspector at the Education Ministry in Baghdad .   In 1963, he was forced to leave Iraq due to the escalation of struggle between Baath-led nationalists and Communists, with the latter, exposed for strong chasing by the ruling regime at that time, when he escaped to southern Iraq’s Swamps areas, but the Iranian Intelligence (Savak) detained him, while on his way to Russia through Iran, handed him over the Iraqi authorities, which sentenced him for execution.   After that, efforts of his relatives and close friends had led to the changing of the execution to life-imprisonment, when he was transferred to the famous desert Nugrat al-Salman prison, close to Iraq ’s borders with Saudi Arabia , where he spent a long time and then moved to southwest Iraq ’s Hilla prison.   In Hilla Prison, Mudhaffar al-Nawab and a group of his prison-mates succeeded to dig a tunnel under the prison, from where they escaped, and then he moved to live with simple peasants in the Swamps of southern Iraq , once again.   In 1969, a general amnesty was issued for all prisoners, when Nawab returned to work in education again.   Then, he left Baghdad to Beirut , then to Damascus , moved among Arab and European capitals, to return to Damascus , where he stayed till his return to Baghdad .   SKH (FT)     1351