BAGHDAD: Iraq’s judiciary has acquitted the influential former parliament speaker, Mohammed Al-Halbussi, after dismissing him in 2023 over accusations of forging a document, his office announced Sunday.
Halbussi had been the highest-ranking Sunni official since he first became speaker of parliament in 2018 with the support of Iraq’s powerful pro-Iran parties, and then in 2022 following early elections.
But in November 2023, Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court dismissed Halbussi after a lawmaker accused him of forging a resignation letter and said the former speaker had changed the date on an older document to force him out of parliament.
Halbussi’s media office said on Sunday that “the Iraqi judiciary acquitted” the former head of parliament “of the charges previously brought against him.”
It added that the courts “dismissed the complaints” and closed the investigation.
Halbussi, who heads the Taqadom party, is known for his rapid ascent in Iraqi politics and as a key interlocutor for many Western and Arab dignitaries.
Iraq’s 329-member parliament is dominated by a coalition of pro-Iran Shiite parties.
Under a power-sharing system adopted in Iraq in the aftermath of the 2003 US-led invasion, political positions are divided between Iraq’s ethnic and confessional communities.
In the top positions, the role of prime minister, currently held by Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani, always goes to a Shiite Muslim, that of speaker of parliament to a Sunni Muslim and the presidency to a Kurd.
Iraq’s judiciary acquits powerful former speaker of forgery
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Iraq’s judiciary acquits powerful former speaker of forgery
- Halbussi’s media office said on Sunday that “the Iraqi judiciary acquitted” the former head of parliament “of the charges previously brought against him”
Syria says detained senior Daesh jihadist in Damascus
- The arrest came less than two weeks after a December 13 attack killed two US soldiers
DAMASCUS: Syrian authorities have arrested a senior Daesh group official in the Damascus region in a joint operation with a US-led international coalition, a security official said on Wednesday.
Taha Al-Zoubi, also known as Abu Omar Tabiya, an Daesh leader in Damascus, was detained with several of his men, General Ahmad Al-Dalati was reported as saying by state news agency SANA.
The arrest came less than two weeks after a December 13 attack killed two US soldiers and a US civilian that Washington said was carried out by a lone Daesh gunman in central Syria’s Palmyra.
“Our specialized units, in cooperation with the General Intelligence Directorate and and International Coalition forces, carried out a precise security operation targeting” an Daesh hideout, Dalati said.
On December 20, a Syria monitor said that five Daesh members were killed in US strikes in retaliation for the December 13 attack.
It was the first such incident since the overthrow of longtime ruler Bashar Assad in December last year, and Syrian authorities said the perpetrator was a security forces member who was due to be fired for his “extremist Islamist ideas.”
