Lawyer of Iraq's former rulers charge current rulers with confiscating their property

11/9/2011 12:15 PM

BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: The Lawyer of high-ranking political officials and military commanders of Iraq's former regime, Lawyer
Badi'e Arif Izzat, has charged current political parties and personalities with having "confiscated" the property of the leaders
of the former regime, according to his statement to al-Hayat newspaper of Wednesday.

"Real-estates, registered in the names of high-ranking officials of the former regime, have been transformed in the names of
current officials," Izzat said, adding that "hundreds of houses, belonging to the officials of Iraq's Late President Saddam
Hussein, had been confiscated and were occupied nowadays by high-ranking officials, despite fact that Iraqi laws prevent
such acts."

He said that sons and members of families of former officials "are living under very difficult circumstances in neighboring
countries and they are in need to restore their rights."

"Some of the current officials are paying monthly rents to the owners of those houses, such as President Jalal Talabani,
former Parliament Speaker, Mahmoud al-Mash'hadani and the Leader of al-Wifaq Movement, Iyad Allawi, whilst others
are considering the said mortgages as profits and refuse to pay such rents, due to the legal followup against the leading
officials of the former regime,whose property had been confiscated," he concluded.