Life sentence handed to Iraqi politician Ezzedine Salim's assassin

The Iraqi Central Criminal Court (CCC) on Sunday announced it had given life in prison to the man who partook in the assassination of a member of the Iraqi Governing Council 14 years ago.

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Iraqi Central Criminal Court (CCC) on Sunday announced it had given life in prison to the man who partook in the assassination of a member of the Iraqi Governing Council 14 years ago.

“The CCC reviewed the case of one of the terrorists associated with the Jama’at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad (JTJ) group,” the spokesperson for the Supreme Judicial Council, Judge Abdul Sattar Birqdar, said. “He admitted to having carried out many terror operations since 2003.”

“The accused was also the commander of the team who directed the operation in the Harthiya [Baghdad] region on Ezzedine Salim’s vehicle,” Birqdar added.

Salim was an Iraqi Muslim scholar who was a member of the Islamic Dawa Party and was a crucial member of the Iraqi Governing Council (IGC).

After the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, the IGC was the temporary administrative body that was established by and served under the United States-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA).

Salim was appointed to serve as Council President until the formal handover of power to a new government on June 30, 2004.

However, he was assassinated in May 2004 after the al-Qaeda-linked JTJ group detonated a car bomb driven by a suicide bomber to the Iraqi official’s convoy.

“Mr. Salim’s death will be felt keenly by all who knew him and all who serve the new Iraq. His humility, gentle manner, and learning endeared him to all,” CPA leader Paul Bremer had said in tribute.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany