The Parliamentary Legal Committee renewed its confirmation that the draft amendment of the General Amnesty Law is awaiting political understandings to approve it during the current legislative session.
Committee member, MP Yahya Al-Muhammadi, stated in a statement to the Iraqi National News Agency / NINA /, that “the new amendment draft is still in the custody of the Legal Committee, and there are obstacles related to the articles that are to be included in the text of the law.”
He added, “All representatives of the Sunni component support the law, and there is an understanding from representatives of other blocs of the necessity of legislating it, but there is a difference regarding the articles that can be added to the text of the new amendment, and we hope that the blocs and other representatives will proceed with approving the new amendment during the sessions of the current legislative session.”
He explained that “there is overcrowding in Iraqi prisons by 300%, and the inmates suffer from poor health
care contrary to human rights standards, and there are more than 60 thousand inmates inside the prisons who are from different groups, accused of terrorism and various misdemeanors and felonies.”
Al-Muhammadi confirmed that “all inmates are subject to amnesty, except for terrorists and murderers who cannot be included in the general amnesty, and the understanding remains with the political blocs to include the largest number of inmates and empty the prisons of overcrowding and reintegrate them into society.”
The House of Representatives completed in its session in mid-September, the second reading “report and discussion” of the draft second amendment to the General Amnesty Law No. 27 of 2016.
Source: National Iraqi News Agency