Mithal al-Alusi
Encyclopedia
Mithal Jamal Hussein Ahmad al-Alusi (Arabic
مثال جمال حسين احمد الآلوسي born 1954) is an Iraq
i politician and the leader of the Democratic Party of the Iraqi Nation. He was elected to the Iraqi Council of Representatives as an independent in the December 2005 election
. He is a Sunni Muslim Arab
secularist politician and supports a close alliance with the United States of America, the United Kingdom
, Turkey
and Israel
. He holds a German passport from his time in exile there.
literature
.
, Saddam Hussein
. Alusi was then a member of the Ba'ath Party, but had been aligned with opponents of Saddam within the party such as Abdel-Khaliq Al-Samara'i, who was himself killed by the security services. Alusi went into exile in Germany
and worked as a businessman. In December 2002, he was involved in the takeover of the Iraqi embassy in Berlin
to protest Saddam's tyranny, and was convicted of hostage taking by a German court and sentenced to three years in jail. His sentence was later reduced to house arrest. He returned to Iraq in October 2003 and joined the Iraqi National Congress
. http://www.nysun.com/article/8374?page_no=3
In September 2004, after making a public visit to Israel
, al-Alusi was expelled from the Iraqi National Congress
and sacked from his job at the De-Baathification Commission. He was indicted by the Central Criminal Court of Iraq
for "having contacts with enemy states" - a crime under a 1969 Baathist law.
This led him to establish the Democratic Party of the Iraqi Nation, which ran in the January 2005 election
. It received only 4,500 votes, far from enough to gain a seat in the Council of Representatives. However, his list won enough votes to obtain one seat for Baghdad Province in the December 2005 election
.
On February 19, 2005, Al-Alusi's car was ambushed by armed assailants in the Hayy Al-Jami'a
neighborhood of Baghdad. His two sons Ayman, 29, and Jamal, 24, were killed in the attack, as well as one of his bodyguards. The American Jewish Committee
gave him a "Moral Courage" award in response. Then Culture Minister, Asaad al-Hashimi, was convicted in absentia of the killings.
In September 2008, he again visited Israel and spoke at a conference on counter-terrorism organised by the IDC, a private college in Herzellia. He praised Israel, saying "In Israel, there is no occupation, there is liberalism" and criticised Iran
, saying it was continually meddling in Iraq. He called for intelligence sharing between Iraq, Israel
, the United States
, Jordan
, Turkey
, and Kuwait
. When he returned, the National Assembly of Iraq
voted to remove his parliamentary immunities and ban him from travelling. The Minister for Paliamentary Affairs
, Safaaeddine al-Safi, said he would seek a prosecution for "visiting a country that Iraq considers an enemy". Such a crime can carry the death penalty. Alusi appealed to the Supreme Federal Court who overturned the lifting of his immunity, ruling that it was unconstitutional as no crime had been committed.
In a series of interviews from September to December 2009 he stated that "We are receiving information which says Iran is so close to producing an atom bomb" and that "...the international community, don't realize how close [the Iranians] are to the goal...".
However, al-Alusi, asked whether his sources are members of the Iranian government, or Iranian nuclear scientists, said that he could not be more specific, but that they are "...people who are part of the system in Iran."
He further stated, that a military operation is the best solution to face the Iranians and that an attack should better happen sooner than late.
After the 2010 Iraqi parliamentary elections, the Mithal al-Alusi List
which had won one seat during the December 2005 elections
for Mithal al-Alusi himself, claimed the elections were rigged against liberals like himself, by Iran
and Saudi Arabia
as he lost his seat in parliament. Alusi claimed there were major discrepancies between the vote count according IHEC and his own monitors. He also claimed village directors prevented women from voting in rural areas. He called on the United States to launch an investigation to the allegedly fixed election results.
A recount of the votes in Baghdad was ordered by the Supreme Court on 19 April 2010. The recount began on 3 May 2010. On 14 May IHEC announced that after 11,298 ballot boxes had been recounted, there was no sign of fraud or violations. The Supreme Court later rattified the results and as a result Mithal al-Alusi lost his seat.
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
مثال جمال حسين احمد الآلوسي born 1954) is an Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
i politician and the leader of the Democratic Party of the Iraqi Nation. He was elected to the Iraqi Council of Representatives as an independent in the December 2005 election
Iraqi legislative election, December 2005
Following the ratification of the Constitution of Iraq on 15 October 2005, a general election was held on 15 December to elect a permanent 275-member Iraqi Council of Representatives....
. He is a Sunni Muslim Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
secularist politician and supports a close alliance with the United States of America, the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
and Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
. He holds a German passport from his time in exile there.
Early life
Al-Alusi hails from a very prominent Iraqi Sunni family from Anbar Province, and his father was a renowned scholar and Baghdad University professor of Classical ArabicClassical Arabic
Classical Arabic , also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad and Abbasid times . It is based on the Medieval dialects of Arab tribes...
literature
Arabic literature
Arabic literature is the writing produced, both prose and poetry, by writers in the Arabic language. The Arabic word used for literature is adab which is derived from a meaning of etiquette, and implies politeness, culture and enrichment....
.
Life in exile
In 1976, he was sentenced to death in absentia while studying in Cairo, for trying to undermine then-President of IraqPresident of Iraq
The President of Iraq is the head of state of Iraq and "safeguards the commitment to the Constitution and the preservation of Iraq's independence, sovereignty, unity, the security of its territories in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution." The President is elected by the Council of...
, Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
. Alusi was then a member of the Ba'ath Party, but had been aligned with opponents of Saddam within the party such as Abdel-Khaliq Al-Samara'i, who was himself killed by the security services. Alusi went into exile in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and worked as a businessman. In December 2002, he was involved in the takeover of the Iraqi embassy in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
to protest Saddam's tyranny, and was convicted of hostage taking by a German court and sentenced to three years in jail. His sentence was later reduced to house arrest. He returned to Iraq in October 2003 and joined the Iraqi National Congress
Iraqi National Congress
The Iraqi National Congress is an umbrella Iraqi opposition group led by Ahmed Chalabi. It was formed with the aid and direction of the United States government following the Gulf War, for the purpose of fomenting the overthrow of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.-History:INC was set up following the...
. http://www.nysun.com/article/8374?page_no=3
Return to Iraq
After the invasion of Iraq, Alusi was appointed the General Director of Culture and Media at the Higher National Commission for De-Baathification.In September 2004, after making a public visit to Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, al-Alusi was expelled from the Iraqi National Congress
Iraqi National Congress
The Iraqi National Congress is an umbrella Iraqi opposition group led by Ahmed Chalabi. It was formed with the aid and direction of the United States government following the Gulf War, for the purpose of fomenting the overthrow of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.-History:INC was set up following the...
and sacked from his job at the De-Baathification Commission. He was indicted by the Central Criminal Court of Iraq
Central Criminal Court of Iraq
The Central Criminal Court of Iraq, or CCCI, is a criminal court of Iraq. The CCCI is based on an inquisitorial system and consists of two chambers: an investigative court and a criminal court...
for "having contacts with enemy states" - a crime under a 1969 Baathist law.
This led him to establish the Democratic Party of the Iraqi Nation, which ran in the January 2005 election
Iraqi legislative election, January 2005
Elections for the National Assembly of Iraq were held on January 30, 2005 in Iraq. The 275-member National Assembly was a parliament created under the Transitional Law during the Occupation of Iraq...
. It received only 4,500 votes, far from enough to gain a seat in the Council of Representatives. However, his list won enough votes to obtain one seat for Baghdad Province in the December 2005 election
Iraqi legislative election, December 2005
Following the ratification of the Constitution of Iraq on 15 October 2005, a general election was held on 15 December to elect a permanent 275-member Iraqi Council of Representatives....
.
On February 19, 2005, Al-Alusi's car was ambushed by armed assailants in the Hayy Al-Jami'a
Hayy Al-Jami'a
Hayy Al-Jami'a is a neighborhood in the Mansour district of Baghdad, Iraq.The neighborhood was originally created during the mid 1960s, to provide housing for university professors. This is the origin of its name, since "Jamia" means "University" in Arabic...
neighborhood of Baghdad. His two sons Ayman, 29, and Jamal, 24, were killed in the attack, as well as one of his bodyguards. The American Jewish Committee
American Jewish Committee
The American Jewish Committee was "founded in 1906 with the aim of rallying all sections of American Jewry to defend the rights of Jews all over the world...
gave him a "Moral Courage" award in response. Then Culture Minister, Asaad al-Hashimi, was convicted in absentia of the killings.
In September 2008, he again visited Israel and spoke at a conference on counter-terrorism organised by the IDC, a private college in Herzellia. He praised Israel, saying "In Israel, there is no occupation, there is liberalism" and criticised Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
, saying it was continually meddling in Iraq. He called for intelligence sharing between Iraq, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
, Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, and Kuwait
Kuwait
The State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab state situated in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south at Khafji, and Iraq to the north at Basra. It lies on the north-western shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the...
. When he returned, the National Assembly of Iraq
National Assembly of Iraq
The Council of Representatives of Iraq is the main elected body of representatives in Iraq. It is currently composed of 325 seats and meets in Baghdad inside the International Zone . It is governed by bylaws that can be found -The monarchy:...
voted to remove his parliamentary immunities and ban him from travelling. The Minister for Paliamentary Affairs
Council of Ministers of Iraq
The Cabinet of Iraq is the executive branch of the government of Iraq.The National Assembly of Iraq elects a President of State who along with two deputies form the Presidency Council. The Presidency Council appoints the Prime Minister who appoints the Council of Ministers, all of whom must be...
, Safaaeddine al-Safi, said he would seek a prosecution for "visiting a country that Iraq considers an enemy". Such a crime can carry the death penalty. Alusi appealed to the Supreme Federal Court who overturned the lifting of his immunity, ruling that it was unconstitutional as no crime had been committed.
In a series of interviews from September to December 2009 he stated that "We are receiving information which says Iran is so close to producing an atom bomb" and that "...the international community, don't realize how close [the Iranians] are to the goal...".
However, al-Alusi, asked whether his sources are members of the Iranian government, or Iranian nuclear scientists, said that he could not be more specific, but that they are "...people who are part of the system in Iran."
He further stated, that a military operation is the best solution to face the Iranians and that an attack should better happen sooner than late.
After the 2010 Iraqi parliamentary elections, the Mithal al-Alusi List
Mithal al-Alusi List
The Mithal al-Alusi List is one of the coalitions of Iraqi political parties that ran in the December 2005 elections. It was formed from the Iraqi Federalist Gathering and the Iraqi Ummah Party The coalition won 0.3 % of the popular vote, thus receiving one seat, which was taken by its...
which had won one seat during the December 2005 elections
Iraqi legislative election, December 2005
Following the ratification of the Constitution of Iraq on 15 October 2005, a general election was held on 15 December to elect a permanent 275-member Iraqi Council of Representatives....
for Mithal al-Alusi himself, claimed the elections were rigged against liberals like himself, by Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
and Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
as he lost his seat in parliament. Alusi claimed there were major discrepancies between the vote count according IHEC and his own monitors. He also claimed village directors prevented women from voting in rural areas. He called on the United States to launch an investigation to the allegedly fixed election results.
A recount of the votes in Baghdad was ordered by the Supreme Court on 19 April 2010. The recount began on 3 May 2010. On 14 May IHEC announced that after 11,298 ballot boxes had been recounted, there was no sign of fraud or violations. The Supreme Court later rattified the results and as a result Mithal al-Alusi lost his seat.