| Hashemi trial revives memories of sectarian killings in Iraq |
BAGHDAD With testimony of torture, betrayal and death, the trial of Iraq’s fugitive vice-president is reviving memories of sectarian killings with witnesses painting an ugly portrait of the underbelly of Iraqi politics.
Vice-president Tareq Al Hashemi, a politician in the Iraqiya bloc, fled Baghdad in December days after US troops left when Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki’s government sought his arrest on charges he ran a death squad.
International police agency, Interpol, is seeking Hashemi’s arrest at Iraq’s request after he was accused of orchestrating the killings of people. Hashemi denies the charges and says the trial is a witch-hunt by Maliki to consolidate his own position.
The initial case focuses on three murder charges involving the assassination of a general manager of the National Security Ministry, an officer in the Interior Ministry and a lawyer. But Hashemi, his son-in-law and dozens of their bodyguards are also charged with the deaths of six judges.
In court, defendants have given a chilling image of Hashemi and his son-in-law Ahmed Kahtan, at the heart of a gang that set up car bombs, assassinations with silenced weapons and other attacks.
One defendant, Rasha Al Husseini, who worked as Hashemi’s media office manager, said she was raped by the vice-president’s son-in-law, who used video of the incident to force her to take part in attacks.
“Ahmed Kahtan raped me in his house in the Green Zone when his wife was away,” Husseini said in an interview given in a holding cell outside the trial area, with permission of the court. “He taped the incident and threatened me with that tape.”
Husseini, 36, a mother of an 8-year-old boy, said she was forced to drive three car bombs and another two cars carrying weapons to ensure they passed through the check points without inspection because she is a woman.
The stigma of rape and the threat of public exposure in a video tape would be especially difficult for a woman in a conservative country like Iraq.
They both say they are ready to face trial but not in a Baghdad court, which they believe is under the sway of Maliki in a judicial system tainted by political bias.
“I believe Rasha made these fake allegations under the torture and extortion. For my part, I totally deny all these allegations. I express my readiness to attend any court which can guarantee justice and personal protection,” Kahtan wrote in response to the accusations.
Maliki’s allies say the Hashemi trial is not political. But many Iraqis say they see a sectarian hand behind the case, accusing Maliki of shoring up his position at their expense.
Hashemi also rejected Husseini’s claims, saying she was forced to make the accusations. He said in a written response that the case was fabricated and politically motivated.
The three-judge panel at Baghdad’s Central Criminal Court listened to 15 defendants’ testimony in the last three sessions, all of them accusing Hashemi of orchestrating attacks and said Kahtan was the link between them and Hashemi.
“He promised to make me the commander-in-chief of Rescue Police or Traffic Police in Baghdad, in return for my full cooperation and obedience,” said Brigadier Salam Kareem, another defendant, who is accused of leaking information about the police officers who prosecutors charge were later killed.
Defendants have told the court they were rewarded with $300 to $3,000 each time depending on their role in operations.
“When they fled Iraq, they left us in this ordeal,” Ahmed Shawqi, a former police officer and a defendant said outside the courtroom.
Reuters
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