policy
After years of injustice suffered by businessman Bahaa Abdul Hussein, owner of Qi Card, former Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi has made a belated admission that errors occurred in the handling of his case during the work of the Abu Ragheef Committee, a body established under his government before Iraq Federal Supreme Court invalidated its legal foundation.
Al-Kadhimi admission cannot be reduced to an attempt to place responsibility on junior employees. The case was linked to a committee granted broad powers by his government, before Iraq highest constitutional court ruled that the Diwani Order creating it was invalid and should be annulled, reaffirming that human dignity and individual rights cannot be subjected to exceptional procedures overriding constitutional safeguards.
The acknowledgment comes after years in which the name of Bahaa Abdul Hussein and the reputation of Qi Card, a leading Iraqi electronic payment company, were affected by the case, while the committee work became associated with serious reports of abuse, mistreatment and coerced confessions involving officials and businessmen.
What happened to the owner of Qi Card can no longer be dismissed through political justification. It is a case requiring clear redress, genuine restoration of standing and a comprehensive review of the procedures that affected an Iraqi businessman and a successful national company.
