LONDON: Police in Iraq have arrested a man selling watches in central Baghdad with images of the country’s former dictator Saddam Hussein on their faces.
Since the fall of Hussein, promotion of the former leader, the regime or the Ba’ath party is prohibited.
Baghdad police department said in a statement that they acted after they had received a tip from a member of the public that someone was selling wristwatches with pictures of Saddam Hussein on them.
The statement did not give further details about the arrest.
Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death by hanging on Dec, 30 2006 after being convicted of crimes against humanity.
Iraq’s judiciary recently said no decision or law had been implemented to punish Saddam Hussein’s supporters and pointed out that any step in this regard should be first initiated by the Iraqi Parliament, despite the country’s constitution prohibiting the existence of the former Ba’ath party.
This statement came after a popular poet appeared in the southern province of Dhi Qar, delivering a poem that many saw as a tribute to Saddam Hussein, who ruled Iraq for decades, from 1979 until his fall in 2003.
Iraqi police arrest man selling Saddam Hussein watches in Baghdad
Iraqi police arrest man selling Saddam Hussein watches in Baghdad
- Since the fall of Hussein, promotion of the former leader, the regime or the Ba’ath party is prohibited
- Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death by hanging on Dec, 30 2006
Second doctor in Matthew Perry overdose case sentenced to home confinement
- Dr. Mark Chavez, 55, a onetime San Diego-based physician, pleaded guilty in federal court in October
- Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett also sentenced Chavez to 300 hours of community service
LOS ANGELES: A second California doctor was sentenced on Tuesday to eight months of home confinement for illegally supplying “Friends” star Matthew Perry with ketamine, the powerful sedative that caused the actor’s fatal drug overdose in a hot tub in 2023.
Dr. Mark Chavez, 55, a onetime San Diego-based physician, pleaded guilty in federal court in October to a single felony count of conspiracy to distribute the prescription anesthetic and surrendered his medical license in November.
Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett also sentenced Chavez to 300 hours of community service. As part of his plea agreement, Chavez admitted to selling ketamine to another physician Dr. Salvador Plasencia, 44, who in turn supplied the drug to Perry, though not the dose that ultimately killed the performer. Plasencia, who pleaded guilty to four counts of unlawful drug distribution, was sentenced earlier this month to 2 1/2 years behind bars.
He and Chavez were the first two of five people convicted in connection with Perry’s ketamine-induced death to be sent off to prison.
The three others scheduled to be sentenced in the coming weeks — Jasveen Sangha, 42, a drug dealer known as the “Ketamine Queen;” a go-between dealer Erik Fleming, 56; and Perry’s former personal assistant, Iwamasa, 60.
Sangha admitted to supplying the ketamine dose that killed Perry, and Iwamasa acknowledged injecting Perry with it. It was Iwamasa who later found Perry, aged 54, face down and lifeless, in the jacuzzi of his Los Angeles home on October 28, 2023.
An autopsy report concluded the actor died from the acute effects of ketamine,” which combined with other factors in causing him to lose consciousness and drown.
Perry had publicly acknowledged decades of substance abuse, including the years he starred as Chandler Bing on the hit 1990s NBC television series “Friends.”
According to federal law enforcement officials, Perry had been receiving ketamine infusions for treatment of depression and anxiety at a clinic where he became addicted to the drug.
When doctors there refused to increase his dosage, he turned to unscrupulous providers elsewhere willing to exploit Perry’s drug dependency as a way to make quick money, authorities said. Ketamine is a short-acting anesthetic with hallucinogenic properties that is sometimes prescribed to treat depression and other psychiatric disorders. It also has seen widespread abuse as an illicit party drug.
