Baqir Jabr Al-Zubeidi (Arabic: باقر جبر الزبيدي, romanized: Bāqir Jarb al-Zabīdī), also known as Bayan Jabr Solagh (Arabic: بيان باقر صولاغ, romanized: Bayān Bāqir Sūlāġ), is a former commander of the Badr Brigades who served as the Finance Minister of Iraq in the government of Nouri al-Maliki. He served as Minister of Interior, in charge of the police, in the Iraqi Transitional Government and was Minister of Housing and Reconstruction of the Iraqi Governing Council. He is a senior member of the Shi'a United Iraqi Alliance as well as a leader in the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI).
Born in 1946 in the Maysan Governorate, Jabr became a Shi'a activist while studying engineering at Baghdad University in the 1970s. He escaped to Iran amid former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's crackdown on Shi'a political groups and joined the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI). He later headed SCIRI's office in Syria. According to the Independent newspaper Jabr was a former commander of SCIRI's militia, the Badr Brigades.
Under Jabr's control the Interior Ministry in 2006 was accused by the United Nations human rights chief in Iraq, John Pace, of executing and torturing to death hundreds of Iraqis every month.[1]
On 3 January 2006, his sister was reported kidnapped by Iraqi insurgents.[2] She was released two weeks later after a ransom was paid by him.
References
- ^ "Iraq's death squads: on the brink of civil war" The Independent, 26 February 2006
- ^ Knickmeyer, Ellen (3 January 2006). "U.S. Raid Kills Family North of Baghdad". The Washington Post. Retrieved 13 January 2013.
External links
- "Iraq's post-war cabinet". BBC News. 1 September 2003. Retrieved 24 February 2006.
- "Iraq official defends 'torture' facility". CNN. 18 November 2005. Archived from the original on 27 April 2006.
- "Death squads operated from inside Iraqi government, officials say". Knight Ridder. 12 March 2006.
- Knickmeyer, Ellen (14 May 2006). "Iraq Begins to Rein in Paramilitary Force". The Washington Post. Retrieved 26 April 2010.
- "The Minister of Civil War". Harper's. 20 July 2006.
- "Iraq – The Death Squads". Channel 4. 7 November 2006.
- PBS FRONTLINE: Gangs of Iraq 17 April 2007
- Interview with Bayan Jabr, PBS FRONTLINE: Gangs of Iraq 21 November 2006
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