Tuesday, August 07, 2007

 

Arrest warrants issued for sports figures - IAF calls for their protection

Politics, Sport
(Voices of Iraq) - The Sunni Iraqi Accordance Front (IAF) called for protecting the Iraqi Football Association chief Hussein Saed and current coach Ahmed Radi, adding the minister of youths & sports has issued arrest warrants against them. "While the Iraqi people celebrate the great victory achieved by the national football team, two arrest warrants were issued against IAF candidate Ahmed Radi and the Iraqi Football Association Chairman Hussein Saed," according to an IAF statement received by the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI) on Tuesday.
The Front's statement, released on Monday, urged the intervention of the Iraqi presidency council and international organizations "to deal quickly with the issue in the service of the public interests." Radi and Saed had stated via the mass media that two arrest warrants were issued against them for criticizing the government and accusing it of "not backing the sports march in Iraq." Iraqi Interior Minister Jawwad al-Bulani had then denied these warrants were issued.
Iraq has won the 14th Asian nations cup for the first time in its history after defeating Saudi Arabia 1/0 with a header by striker Younis Mahmoud in the final match in Jakarta, Indonesia on July 29. The IAF, which is composed of three Sunni political organizations and has 44 out of a total 275 seats in the Iraqi parliament, had withdrawn its five ministers and Deputy Premier Sallam al-Zawbaie from the incumbent government of Nouri al-Maliki in protest against failure to respond to its demands for political and security reforms.

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