A local criminal court in Diyala province issued an arrest warrant for a Sunni member of the Iraqi parliament on suspicion of financing and inciting sectarian violence, a security official in the northeastern province said Saturday. According to the AP, the security official said the warrants for lawmaker Tayseer al-Mashhadani and her husband, Hashim al-Hiyali, were issued on Thursday.
A suspect in police detention told his interrogators the couple gave him orders and money to kill and expel Shiites from the religiously mixed province, the official said. He added al-Mashhadani cannot be immediately arrested because she enjoys parliamentary immunity. The judge, Thamir al-Ambaki, who issued the warrants on Thursday, has requested parliament to lift her immunity to facilitate her arrest on suspicion of "ordering and funding terrorist operations," the security official added.
Meanwhile, in Tikrit, located 130 kilometers north of Baghdad, a suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest killed two people outside the offices of a Sunni political party called National Unity. Four employees working at the party's offices were also wounded, police and medical officials said.
© 2009 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
