MP proposes debaathificiation to cover VP Hashemi

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The Iraqi parliament’s legal committee is waiting for a decision tomorrow (Feb. 7) by the debaathification board on whether the law should cover Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, the committee chairman said on Saturday. “The legal committee has submitted a request to the Accountability & Justice (Debaathification) Board to consider the status of Hashemi after his recent statements in Washington that were considered as promoting the banned Baath Party,” Bahaa al-Aaraji told IraqiNews.com news agency. Hashemi, during an official visit to the United States, had said in statements that he hoped the Iraqi court of appeal would rule that the decisions to set up the debaathification board were not correct in the first place and should not represent a recourse. Meanwhile, Abdulilah Kadhem, the information spokesman for the vice president’s office, said legislator Aaraji’s statements on covering Hashemi under the debaathification law were “unbalanced and ill-calculated”. “These remarks do not even deserve comments because they only indicate a clear political failure for lawmaker Aaraji,” Kadhem added. AmR (P) 2