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Iraqi authorities launch manhunt for MP accused in Parliament bombing
Iraqi authorities on Wednesday launched a manhunt for an MP accused of involvement in an April 2007 bombing of Parliament after his immunity was lifted and he was prevented from fleeing to Jordan. "Mohammad al-Daini is on the run but we are after him because the arrest warrant is now valid," the spokesman for Baghdad's military security command, General Qassem Atta, told AFP.MPs voted to lift Daini's parliamentary immunity on Wednesday, just hours after he was barred from flying out to Amman from Baghdad airport, where he was refused an exit stamp at passport control. He was trying to leave for Amman on a Royal Jordanian flight together with four other MPs, a security source at the airport said. The plane took off without the MPs, as the other four stayed behind in solidarity with Daini, the source added. Daini, a Sunni Arab who has insisted on his innocence, was not arrested at the airport as he still had parliamentary immunity at the time. On Monday, the deputy dismissed charges of having ordered the bombing which killed eight people including a fellow MP, as a politically motivated "fabrication" due to his party's defense of human rights. "We have been disclosing serious violations of human rights in Iraqi prisons," Daini, a member of the National Dialogue Front. "We knew there would be a price to pay ... but we didn't expect it to go this far, to go beyond all constitutional and legal norms," he said. "These are fabrications ... It was clear they were tortured when they were shown on television," the MP said, referring to video recordings of two of his bodyguards confessing to being involved in the suicide bombing. The MP, an ex-member of an elite Saddamist force, was accused on Sunday of ordering the bombing two years ago in the Parliament's canteen. Posted by: Fred 2009-02-26 |
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