VP concerned about general pardon law mechanism

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashimi on Thursday stressed the need for Iraqi’s judicial system to obtain full-fledged independence, expressing concerns over the mechanism to apply the general pardon law, particularly as far as the release of detainees is concerned. “The number of the persons covered by the pardon law would hardly be of any value if the law is not translated on the ground,” Hashimi was quoted in a statement published by his web site after a meeting with the official spokesman for the Supreme Judicial Council Abdelsattar al-Bayraqdar. “The flaws contained in the executive part of the law should be addressed,” Hashimi said in the statement received by IraqiNews.com news agency. The Iraqi parliament had passed on February 27, 2008 a law granting clemency for a large number of Iraqi detainees in accordance with set conditions and controls. Bayraqdar had said on Sunday that the number of pardoned detainees reached 128,707, while those not covered by the law are 31,426. AmR (P) 1