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| Iraq |
| Iraqi Sadrist cleric slams 'politicalÂ’ arrests |
| 2009-04-11 |
| BAGHDAD - A senior Iraqi Shiite cleric on Friday condemned a spate of “political” arrests of members of the Sadr movement and warned rivals they could expect similar treatment in the future. “We say to those who carry out such arrest operations that what goes around comes around,” said Abdel Hadi Mohammedawi, an imam close to the firebrand Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. “If the situation is governed by the law, then the law will hold you to account when you are no longer in power,” he told thousands of supporters at a mosque in the town of Kufa south of Baghdad. Mohammedawi said the arrests were illegal and had been carried out for “political purposes.” “At the same time that we see this series of car bombs and terrorism in Baghdad we also see the arrests of the sons of the Sadr movement, and we don’t know the reason or the connection,” he added. A senior Sadr official in Najaf told AFP that 12,000-13,000 of the group’s followers are in Iraqi and US military custody and that between 200 and 300 had been arrested since the start of the month. |
| Posted by:Steve White |