1st LD: Iraq lifts immunity from speaker, lawmakers over graft allegations

The Iraqi parliament on Tuesday voted to strip its speaker and two lawmakers of immunity from prosecution over allegations of corruption revealed by the defense minister earlier in the month, a local official said.

The vote came after Speaker Salim al-Jubouri made a request to the parliament to lift his immunity at a session earlier in the day, the official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

In his address to the parliament, Jubouri said he wanted to prove his innocence through legal proceedings as the allegations against him were false.

It was "a big conspiracy and an attempt to disable the parliament from conducting its duty of monitoring," he said.

"The parliament voted in lifting the immunity of Speaker Salim al-Jubouri, Mohammed al-Karboli and Talib al-Ma'mari, whose names were mentioned in the earlier corruption allegations by the defense minister," the official said.

On August 1, the parliament summoned defense minister Khalid al-Obeidi to respond to allegations of huge graft in his ministry.

However, Obeidi revealed that officials including Speaker Salim al-Jubouri and other lawmakers had blackmailed him on weapons contracts.

Jubouri immediately denied such allegations, and told a televised news conference that Obeidi's charges against him and other lawmakers were "baseless."

On August 4, the Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council banned the speaker and six other officials, including the two lawmakers, from travelling aboard, and formed a panel to examine the case. Endit