Iraq's Ambassador in Algeria: “I haven't been summoned to the Foreign Ministry in Algiers”

The Iraqi ambassador to Algeria has denied in a statement to Echorouk having been summoned to the foreign ministry here in Algiers in the aftermath of the execution in Iraq of an Algerian detainee, namely Abdallah Ahmed Belhadi, after being convicted by a Baghdad court on so-called “terror charges” along with 10 other defendants earlier this week.

• Ambassador Moussa Abd El Hadi argued that the Iraqi justice was “independent from political interference and had tried the defendants including the Algerian national in all equity and with no bias or discrimination”.
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• He further said that the execution of the 11 defendants was in consistence with a final court ruling that declared them guilty of terrorist activities on Iraqi soil after a thorough investigation and cross-examination by the magistrates in charge of the file.
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• The Iraqi ambassador also announced that eleven Algerians in all were still being detained in Iraq pending their trial on similar “subversive terror charges” carried out on Iraqi territory, as he put it.
• He added that these Algerian detainees might be sent back to Algeria if the Algerian government signed a protocol agreement with the Iraqi government providing for a swap of prisoners detained in both countries.
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• The senior Iraqi diplomat posted here in Algiers also expressed hope that the authorities of the two countries could thrash out a common convention on this sensitive issue in the near future.