Romania Could Block Munaf Takeover

If Romania doesn’t make any request, the Americans will send Mohammad Munaf to the Iraqis for him to "take his medicine". Iraqi judicial sources say it is highly probable for Abu Sahar, the leader of the second group that took the Romanian journalists prisoners, to be dead after a military action at Ramadi. Four of Sahar’s terrorists are also trialed in Iraq.

Mohammad Munaf’s sentence to death, which the Iraqi Justice decided, and the fact that the USA Court refused keeping its citizen looks to have decided the future of the person involved in the kidnapping of the Romanian journalists. Munaf will be handed over for him to take his medicine, no matter the sentence. The interesting part appeared in the statements made the other day by the judicial sources in Baghdad that showed an implication of Romania. The Romanian justice is also interested in investigating Munaf for his actions against the Romanian citizens as well as in interrogating him for the Omar Hayssam case. According to the quoted sources, "as far as Mohammad Munaf is concerned, after the request of the Iraqi Government, the American authorities have stated that Mohammad Munaf will be handed over to the Iraqi authorities, no matter their sentence, if Romania doesn’t make any request". We say interesting because the Romanian authorities have repeatedly tried to get Munaf for a trial in Romania. They couldn’t ask for the extradition from the Americans, because the international rules for such a request weren’t met. At least this was the explanation coming from the Romanian Minister of Justice, Monica Macovei.

CONCLUSIONS. If the Americans used the same phrase as the Iraqis, as far as Romania is concerned, we could logically understand several things. One: such a request from the Romanian authorities to the American authorities was normal (the fact that the Romanian prosecutors have said from the beginning), because the fact that it is missing wouldn’t have been mentioned otherwise. Two: if the request existed, USA would have had to deal with the requests from two states, Romania and Iraq, both of them members of the Multinational Force. A request for Munaf’s investigation, the other one for his death. It is quite clear which country would have got him first, since one cannot judge a dead person. Three: at least theoretically, if the Appeal Court in Bucharest decides to actually ask Munaf from the USA or from the Multinational Force, it could delay the handing over.

ABU SAHAR .Few months ago, four more Iraqis involved in the kidnapping of the Romanian journalists have been arrested. They are the terrorists that guarded the journalists in the second location. They are four men from the group of Abu Sahar. According to the quoted sources, the four are taking part in a different trial than the one in which Munaf, his stepbrother, Yousef Al Amin, and his brother in law, Ibrahim al Giuburi, have already been sentenced to death. The representative person of the group, Abu Sahar, is yet to be caught. According to the same sources, it seems that this kidnapper "has been killed in Ramadi in a crossfire" that took place this year. Munaf’s trial didn’t take too much time and we expect for the terrorists of Abu Sahar to see the verdicts in their cases very soon. They could also be sentenced to death, because, before sentencing the Iraqi-American Munaf to death, the Iraqi justice had decided 653 more such sentences.

SHOCKING.
"As far as Mohammad Munaf is concerned, after the request of the Iraqi Government, the American authorities have stated that Mohammad Munaf will be handed over to the Iraqi authorities, no matter their sentence, if Romania doesn’t make any request"

ANOTHER TRIAL
"Four more Iraqis involved in the kidnapping of the Romanian journalists, the ones that guarded them have been arrested (…) The four are taking part in a different trial than the one in which Munaf had been sentenced to death. Abu Sahar is not in the custody of the Iraqi authorities. It seems he died in a crossfire in Ramadi that took place this year". Judicial Sources in Baghdad

HANGMAN

The Central Iraqi Penal Court has sentenced Mohammad Munaf, Omar Hayssam’s business partner, the man with which he had planned the kidnapping of journalists Marie-Jeanne Ion, Sorin Miscoci and Ovidiu Ohanesian, to death two weeks ago. If the Appeal doesn’t change the verdict, Munaf will be hanged according to article no. 421 in the Iraqi Punishment Law. Strange or not, Omar, the brains of the entire operation, is free after he had escaped from Romania.