Iraq executes Saudi prisoner

RIYADH: Iraqi lawyer Al-Khansa Al-Jarfi, who defended Mazen Muhammad Nashi, a Saudi prisoner in Iraq, has confirmed the execution of her client on Aug. 27 in a statement published by a local newspaper yesterday. But the Iraqi ambassador to the Kingdom told another Arabic daily that he did not receive any confirmation to that effect from authorities in his country.
"My client was executed on Monday, Aug. 27 following a ruling issued by the Judiciary Council in Iraq even though there was an appeal against the verdict before the courts," she told the Dammam-based Al-Sharq in a telephone interview. She asserted she saw his corpse with her own eyes the following day.
The newspaper said the father, Muhammad Nashi Muhawwal Al-Masawi, had asked for the immediate intervention of the Ministry of Interior to transport the body of his son for burial in the Kingdom.
"In his will, my son asked that no one other than his father and brother perform the Ghusl (washing) of his body and that he should be buried in his own country," he told the ministry in a cable.
The father also asked the Iraqi government, through a cable to the Ministry of Interior, to submit the corpse of his dead son to be transported to the Kingdom even at his own expense. "I am still waiting for the reply of the ministry to tell me when they will give me the dead body," he added.
The father said he came to know about the execution of his son on Monday from inside the Iraqi prison itself. "The lawyer ascertained the execution from the forensic department in the hospital at 8 a.m. on the morning of Tuesday and she confirmed the news to us saying she had personally seen the dead body," he explained.
The lawyer was surprised that the execution was carried out inside the prison at such speed though there was an appeal against the verdict in court. "Arab prisoners in Iraq are being systematically liquidated," she added.
Sobbing uncontrollably, Mazen's mother asked why her son was executed even though Iraqi authorities had assured the family he would not be hanged.
She said her son was detained at the Al-Kazimiyah prison in Baghdad under tight security on the charges of crossing the borders, carrying an Iraqi identity and bombing a police headquarters. “These allegations are false. My son was under the custody of the American forces when the explosion took place,” she said.
Mazen went to Iraq in 2005 when he was 25 years old. He was arrested twice, first by the US forces which later released him and the second time more than two years ago.
His eldest sister, Haifa, said she remained in constant contact with her brother, giving him news about the family to see him through his time in prison.
Iraqi Ambassador Ghanim Al-Jimaili denied knowledge of the execution of any Saudi citizen in an Iraqi prison and said an agreement to exchange prisoners with the Kingdom will be implemented a month after it has been endorsed by the House of Representatives in Iraq.