Saddam's jailed Defense Minister transferred from Nasiriyah to Baghdad: Report

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Saddam Hussein’s former Defense Minister, Sultan Hashim, has been transferred to the capital of Iraq, an official source revealed on Sunday.

“The Defense Minister of the former [dictatorial] regime of Iraq, Sultan Hashim, has been transferred from the Nasiriyah Prison, in the province of Dhi Qar, to Baghdad - under what circumstances remains unclear,” the source told Iraqi al-Sumaria television channel.

“The health condition of Sultan Hashim is deteriorating because of his age,” the source said, adding that “the reason for his transfer to Baghdad is still unknown. It could be related to his health or for security reasons.”

The former minister, 74-year-old General Sultan Hashim, was sentenced to death in 2007. The sentence has yet to be carried out as the Presidential Council refused to ratify the decision.

Hashim played a key role in oppressing Kurds in the country. He also played a significant role in the eight-year war between Iraq and Iran in the 1980s.

On May 3, the speaker of Iraq’s Parliament, Salim al-Jabouri, in an appeal to Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, President Fuad Masum, and Iraq’s top judicial authorities, requested an “exceptional pardon” for Hashim in the run-up to the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Jabouri stated he had previously received “numerous requests from dignitaries in Mosul,” the home city of Hashim located in northern Iraq, to spare him from capital punishment.

Badia Aref, Hashim’s lawyer, recently stated that his client’s health condition was ‘deteriorating’ while in detention in the southern city of Nasiriyah.

The lawyer also requested the release of 14 members of the former dictatorial regime, to no avail.

Editing by Nadia Riva