Iraqi Parliamentary Speaker seeks pardon for Saddam Hussein’s Defense Minister

The former minister, 74-year-old General Sultan Hashim Ahmed, was sentenced to death in 2007.

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The speaker of Iraq’s Parliament, Salim al-Jabouri, on Thursday called on authorities to pardon Saddam Hussein’s former Defense Minister due to his deteriorating health condition.

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

In an appeal to Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, President Fuad Masum, and Iraq’s top judicial authorities, Jabouri requested an “exceptional pardon” for Ahmed in the run-up to the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The letter was dated Thursday, according to AFP.

In a press conference, Jabouri stated he had previously received “numerous requests from dignitaries in Mosul,” the home city of Ahmed located in northern Iraq.

Badia Aref, Ahmed’s lawyer, recently told AFP 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.

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

Editing by Nadia Riva