Urgent / Iraq’s court upholds death sentence against 2 officials

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The Iraqi Supreme Criminal Court Wednesday handed down a death sentence to Watban Ibrahim al-Hassan and Sabaawi Ibrahim al-Hassan and upheld life sentence against Abdul Hamid Mahmoud in the Merchants execution case (1992). The court, presided by Justice Raouf Abdul-Rahman Rasheed, sentenced also Tareq Aziz, Ali Hassan al-Majid and Mezban Khedr Hadi to 15 years behind bars, while it sentenced Ahmad Hassan Haqi to six years behind bars. The court found Issam Rashid Houweish not guilty and released him. In 1992, Saddam Hussein ordered the execution of 40 Iraqi merchants, accusing them of destroying the national economy aggravated due to sanctions imposed on Iraq by the international community after the former regime invaded Kuwait in 1990. There are eight defendants in this case: Watban Ibrahim al-Hassan, who was the interior minister, Sabaawi Ibrahim al-Hassan, the director of the public security between 1991 and 1995, Ali Hassan al-Majid, Tareq Aziz, Mezban Khedr Hadi, who were members of the dissolved Baath party regional leadership in Iraq, Abdul Hamid Mahmoud, the presidency secretary, Ahmad Hussein Khudier, former finance minister, and Issam Rashid Houweish, governor of the Iraqi Central Baghdad between 1994 and 2003. SH (S) 1