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Mohammad Munaf's Iraqi lawyer was heard yesterday by the magistrates of the Court of Appeal Bucharest, as a witness in the file on the Romanian journalists' kidnapping in Iraq and submitted to the court several documents, among which statements Munaf made in Iraq. The court admitted the hearing of Munaf's Iraqi defender, Badie Arief Izzat, and he has answered, for two hours, the questions drawn up for this file, says a Mediafax release. The lawyer said before the magistrates that a final decision in Iraq in Mohammad Munaf's file would be given in about 25 days, and showed that, in his opinion, Munaf would be acquitted.

Beaten by Iraqis

The lawyer has pointed out that the investigation carried out in Iraq had been done with constraints and pressures from the Iraqi police, explaining that he himself had seen traces of violence on the bodies of the six convicted. According to Munaf's defender, the US and the Romanian authorities put pressure over the convicted, but violence wasn't used in Munaf's case, being only threatened that if he didn't say what they wanted him to, they would "put behind bars" his family in Romania. The policemen who put pressure on Munaf have been investigated and are in jail now, according to the lawyer's statements.

He also said that the complaint concerning the Romanian journalists' kidnapping has been lodged in Iraq by two persons that, in his opinion, proved untrue qualities. He indicated, in this respect, Dr. Yashin and US captain Peron, who said he was sent by the Romanian Embassy.

Chaos at Baghdad

When Ovidiu Ohanesian's lawyer asked him about Munaf's being heard by Romanian prosecutors on 18 November 2006, Badie Arief Izzat answered they were two, and that they had left their mandates at the siege of the Romanian Embassy. At the same time, the lawyer has shown that even though he was against Munaf's making statements, the latter insisted to answer the Romanian prosecutors' questions; however, he has said he couldn't read what the Romanian prosecutors have written down, as he didn't have his glasses with him.

According to the statement of the Iraqi lawyer, the Mohammad Munaf file has been of a great interest for the Americans, because a relative of the Iraqi had been in Saddam Hussein's Cabinet. The lawyer added that the representatives of the Romanian Embassy in Baghdad hadn't lent judicial assistance to Munaf, and that the Romanian authorities had proposed him to declare that Omar Hayssam was guilty of the kidnapping and that he was connected with with Saddam Hussein.

Omar is willing to talk

When he got out of the court, the lawyer said he came to Romania with a humanitarian aim, to show the truth, and for Munaf's children. He added that he had information according to which the Iraqi authorities agreed with Munaf's hearing through a videoconference, but for that, the Romanian magistrates had to submit a new request for a rogatory commission.

Badie Arief Izzat also told journalists he kept in touch with Omar Hayssam who told him he was willing to talk with the Romanian authorities even in Iraq or at the seat of one of the Romanian Embassies in Cypress, Athens, Syria or Iran, on condition he was not arrested. Discussions will be taken over on 7 June, date by which the court would issue its opinion on the rogatory commission. (D.E.I.)