Iraqi judiociary clears parliament speaker of graft charges

The Iraqi judiciary on Tuesday cleared the parliament Speaker Salim al-Jubouri of charges of corruption based on allegations revealed against him earlier by the defense minister, the judiciary said.

"The judicial panel, tasked with examining the claims of corruption against the Speaker of the Council of Representatives (parliament) Salim al-Jubouri, decided to dismiss the case against him due to the lack of evidences," the judicial spokesman Abdul Sattar al-Biraqdar said in a statement.

Biraqdar's brief statement did not say whether or not the decision included the two other lawmakers who were also accused of corruption by Obeidi.

The judicial panel's decision came just a few hours after the parliament voted to strip its speaker and two lawmakers of immunity from prosecution over allegations of graft filed against him earlier by the defense minister Khalid al-Obeidi.

During the session, Jubouri said he wanted to prove his innocence through legal proceedings as the allegations against him were false.

It was "a big conspiracy and an attempt to disable the parliament from conducting its duty of monitoring," he said in his address to the parliament.

The parliament also voted in lifting the immunity of Mohammed al-Karboli and Talib al-Ma'mari, whose names were mentioned in the earlier corruption allegations by the defense minister.

On August 1, the parliament summoned defense minister Khalid al-Obeidi to respond to allegations of huge graft in his ministry.

However, Obeidi revealed that officials including Speaker Salim al-Jubouri and other lawmakers had blackmailed him on weapons contracts.

Jubouri immediately denied such allegations, and told a televised news conference that Obeidi's charges against him and other lawmakers were "baseless."

On August 4, the Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council banned the speaker and six other officials, including the two lawmakers, from travelling aboard, and formed a panel to examine the claims, a day after the chief prosecutor filed a lawsuit against Jubouri, the two lawmakers and politicians, whom their names were mentioned by the defense minister during the questioning session.

Source : XINHUA