Iraq releases former top Saddam loyalist

* Khamis Sirhan, No 54 out of 55 on a former US military list of most-wanted Saddam officials

* Iraq election victor boosted as Shia parties bicker

BAGHDAD: The Iraqi government has released from prison a top Saddam Hussein loyalist after he was found innocent of helping the former regime punish opponents by draining the country’s fabled marshlands, a judge said Wednesday.

Khamis Sirhan al-Muhammad was No. 54 out of 55 on a former US military list of most-wanted Saddam officials. Iraqi High Tribunal spokesman Judge Mohammed Abdul-Sahib Yaseen said al-Muhammad was recently released from a prison just outside Baghdad after being cleared of the charges in the marshlands draining case. The trial ended this week.

Al-Muhammad was a Baath Party regional command chairman and militia commander from Anbar Province. He was captured in January 2004. He “was proven innocent because of a lack of evidence,” Yaseen said.

The US military said it did not have any legal authority in whether to release al-Muhammadi, and referred all questions to the Iraqi justice ministry. The draining of marshlands illustrated Saddam’s ruthlessness in pursuing opponents.

A Sunni Muslim, Saddam built a massive network of dams and earthen walls to dry the marshes to punish Shiite rebels who hid there after staging an uprising against his regime. By the time Saddam was overthrown in 2003, the marshes had shrunk by 90 percent from their size in the 1970s.

Another among the 32 defendants tried for the draining of marshlands was Mizban Khudr Hadi. Also a former Baath party regional commander and No. 23 on the most-wanted list, Hadi was convicted and sentenced to death in the case. He was earlier also convicted in a separate case, on charges of helping to plan the forced displacement of Kurds from northeastern Iraq.

Others on the most-wanted list tried for the marshlands included former Defense Minister Sultan Hashim al-Taie, the No. 27 on the list, and Aziz Saleh al-Numan, the list’s No. 8, who chaired the Baath party in Baghdad. Al-Taie was sentenced to 15 years in prison and al-Numan was handed seven years behind bars.

Al-Muhammad was the only one to be freed of the 32 defendants tried in the marshlands case. Sentences for many of the rest ranged from seven years to death by execution – although charges against some were dropped because they are being tried in unrelated cases. And others already have been executed, also in other cases.

Separately, The secular coalition that narrowly won Iraq’s general election is edging closer to power after a bitter row over who becomes prime minister left a rival Shiite alliance on the brink of collapse.

Iyad Allawi, the Shiite former premier whose Iraqiya bloc triumphed in the poll five months ago due to strong backing in Sunni areas, has since been stymied by concerted efforts from adversaries to stop him retaking office.

With no single party winning a parliamentary majority, a Shiite “super-bloc” was formed between the second and third-placed parties in the vote to try to supplant Allawi, who has said neighbouring Iran also wants to sideline him.

Although Allawi has appeared isolated much of the time since his coalition won 91 seats in the March 7 polls compared to the 89 of Maliki’s State of Law Alliance, he has maintained that he has the right to lead the country. agencies

dailytimes.com.pk