On September 18, 2017, the provisions of Law No. (72) were issued containing the law of seizure and confiscation of movable and immovable property belonging to the pillars of the former Iraqi regime which came to replace the resolutions of the Governing Council (76 and 88) for the year 2003 issued by the dissolved Governing Council when Iraq was ruled by American notorious ruler ” Paul Bremer” . This law was issued to address the legislative shortcomings in the provisions of the two resolutions, whereby the movable and immovable property of the pillars of the former Iraqi regime and their relatives were confiscated to the second degree in respect of the first decision. The second was the seizure of movable and immovable property for members of the former security services , where it was comprehensive regardless of their ranks and grades and the subject of disclosure of the names of persons covered by the provisions of the above resolutions was assigned to the accountability and justice commission , which inform the real estate registration services or the courts according to the approach and the number of those covered by the provisions amounted nearly 49 thousand people ,they are up to 90 000 with their relatives , the provisions of the new Law No. 72 of 2017 came by virtue of confiscation and seizure and identified the categories covered by it and as follows:
A) Confiscation of movable and immovable property of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, his wives, children, grandchildren and relatives.
B- Confiscating the movable and immovable property of persons “Abdul Hamoud – 52 Khamis Sarhan Al-Mahmoud” and their wives and children. This category was granted the right of objection to a committee formed in the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers to consider the objections , it was called the ministerial committee and the person whose application has been rejected , he has the right to resort to judiciary .
C- The seizure of movable and immovable property of the governors, members of the branch and above in the party, the rank of brigadier in the security services, or the director of the provincial security or the directors of the investigative sections. This category included itself with the right to appeal before the above-mentioned Committee with the right to resort to the judiciary.
The law 72 provides, those who are included in the provisions of it in Articles b and c , the right to own a dwelling house at a rate of 400 meters, and the law requires the accountability and justice authority to publish the names covered by the provisions of the law in accordance with the provisions of Article 5 thereof. The law provided for no exception to its provisions.
Given the importance of this subject , which has been suspended since the occupation , the historic moment came to resolve its issue noting that on the fourth of this March , the Supreme National Commission for Accountability and Justice in Iraq issued a decision to confiscate the assets of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his regime , 15 years after he was ousted. The decision included thousands of pillars and officials of the former regime, including the children of Saddam Hussein and his grandchildren and relatives.
The decision to confiscate the movable and immovable assets included the names of 4257 persons of the governors and members of branches of the dissolved Baath party and from the rank of brigadier in the security services of the former regime (intelligence service, special security, military security, public security, Saddam’s Fedayeen). And the first Article of the decision provides to confiscate “Saddam Hussein’s money, his wives, his sons, his grandchildren, his relatives to the second degree and their agents.” The second paragraph dealt with another group of regime officials, headed by Abdul Hamoud al-Tikriti, Saddam Hussein’s secretary, and the number of this group are 52 persons and apply to them what applies to Saddam , the confiscation of their money , and the money of their wives , children and second –degree relatives . The third paragraph of the resolution dealt with the rest of the symbols of the regime and its members, who are included only by the decision to confiscate movable and immovable property without affecting the children or grandchildren or wives. The Commission called on the Iraqi government to implement the decision and the confiscation and seizure of funds and property of those named, whether they were imprisoned, dead or executed. And to lift the seizure of the property of thousands of officers and elements of the army and the security and intelligence and members of the lower levels in the Arab Baath Socialist Party.
There is no doubt that it is difficult for any decision to be issued will have the support of all or the approval of everyone, but this decision remains worse than previous decisions as the size of the number of those whose money are confiscated ranges from 90 thousand to more than 4 thousand, and this number also can be reduced If the person whose money is detained has proved his money as his own money and not as a result of his administrative and financial corruption, then he has the right to appeal to the Iraqi courts to challenge these provisions. Thus, the number can be decreased to reach 1,500 people, for example. The last decision in general bears positive signs, in which to lift the seizure of the funds of the Iraqi officers who owned real estate and land, and due to the difficult economic conditions that they experienced after 2003, forced them to sell some of them in twisted ways, not to mention the blackmail that was practiced on them. But with this decision these methods have ceased.
But it is required at the present time, that the new resolution to be supported in the Iraqi street , from the Parliamentary Accountability Committee and the accountability and justice commission and the President of the Iraqi Council of Representatives to explain to the Iraqi public on the importance of this decision and its future implications on the unity of the Iraqi people. This decision gives an indication that there is a clear change in the policy of the rule of the country, which is the direction of correct building of the institutions, the country needs to get out of this dark tunnel, which cost it a lot in previous years. Haidar Abadi may be the Iraqi national figure qualified for this, given the military, security, economic and diplomatic achievements achieved in his era, not to mention his closeness to all the components of the Iraqi people.
Iraqi Studies Unit
Rawabet Center for Research and Strategic Studies