Iraqiya: Judiciary is being politicised

The Iraqi political Iraqiya bloc, led by Iyad Allawi, renewed its accusations against the Iraqi government on Wednesday of “politicising” the judiciary while calling for the lifting of immunity of a number of Iraqiya MPs in the parliament in order to put them to trial. Iraqiya spokesperson Maysoon Al-Damluji told ‘Arabstoday’ that her parliamentary bloc was “surprised at the continued targeting of national forces at parliament, particularly Iraqiya MPs, despite goodwill by Iraqiya by returning to the cabinet and the parliament sessions.” Al-Damluji added that Article 63 of the constitution ensured immunity for MPs concerning their own opinions, however, the “continued targeting of national political figures, who are keen on upholding the interests of the people, is escalating by implying the use of Article 4 on terrorism at one time, and bringing up the penalty law at another.” She explained that such escalation was part of “strenuous efforts to subdue the parliament and deter it from real monitoring of the rampant corruption and flagrant violations of human rights, in order to re-establish a culture of suppression and return to the practices of the former regime.” Al-Damluji indicated that such “desperate attempts” only further prove to the citizens that the judiciary was being politicised and stripped off its independence, which it is entitled to by the constitution. She added that such moves seeked to obstruct the National Conference, which aims to pull the political process out of its current crisis. Several judicial requests asked for cancelling the immunity of many MPs, including Adnan Al-Janabi, Heidar Al-Mulla, and Selim Al-Jabouri from the Iraqiya coalition; Sheikh Sabah Al-Saadi (Independant) and Jaafar al-Mousawi from the Alliance; and others.