Charges against Hakim Al-Zamili and Hamid Al-Shimmari were dropped last Monday. Al-Zamili, who was the deputy health minister until his arrest by the US Army Feb., 2007, was accused of leading death squads in the ministry along with Al-Shimmari, who was the leader of the ministry security forces.

The key witness who testified against the two gangsters did not attend the two day trial. Al-Zamili and his colleague were arrested for a whole year and the trail was over in two days. And the witnesses and their families were threatened and forced to change their testimonies or just not attend. And the wise three judges decided to drop the charges since the witness were too afraid to come forward.

The most famous two crimes these guys committed were the kidnapping of Al-Saffar, who was the deputy health minister who prepared a report about the corruption in the ministry and pointed out Al-Zamili as a part of it. The other incident was the disappearance of Dr.Al-Mahdawi, who was the director general of health in Diyalaa, after attending to a meeting in the ministry on June 12t, 2006. This incident caused large protest by doctors and health care staff all over Iraq.

Other than that, al-Zamili and his colleague facilitated the use of the ministry security forces and ambulance cars by the Mehdi Militias. An insider in the ministry told me once that after killing the people in the basement of the ministry, they issue official papers saying that the body was found in any area in Baghdad, and stamp it with the seal of the police station of that area, and then take the bodies to the morgue, which is the adjacent building to the ministry.

Their crimes also include the killing of Sunnis who came to the morgue to collect the bodies of their dead relatives in 2006 and early 2007. And if someone wants the body of a relative, they will have to pay large bribes just to be able to give them a proper burial. One time I remember meeting an old woman who had to contact the US army and she was escorted by the US army to the morgue to take the body of her son who was killed by Mehdi Militias in Al-Amil area back in 2006.

One interesting thing is that the security forces of the ministry of health consists of 13,000 members. Yes, that is thirteen thousand members. And despite that, more Iraqi doctors and health academics were killed than any other educated sector in Iraq.

When a judge looks into a case, and the key witnesses did not appear at the day of the trial after a year of suspects detention, and makes his decision to dismiss the case in two days, something smells fishy here, doesn't it?

I mean he could postpone the case for a couple of weeks to look for the witnesses. And provide the necessary security to them. This isn't a simple shop-lifting case that can be dismissed without harming anyone. Its a huge case of a suspected leader of death squads. A guy who transferred 60 million dollars to a relative of his in Amman two days before his arrest. And to make things worse, the 60 million dollars were transferred through the "Iraqi Bank of Commerce" which is the bank that overlooks all the governmental transactions. This bank is mainly managed by Americans and is positioned in the first two floors of the Central Bank of Iraq building.  I mean there are documents about this transfer. And all of this was not enough to prolong the case for more than two days.

This means one of two things; either the judges are part of the crimes these guys were doing, or the were shushed by the criminals by force or bribery. In the two cases, the system is f*cked up.

How can people trust the government anymore?

No security, no services, and power of law. These are the three things that Iraqis will remember the Maliki's government with.

************ Update March 6th, 2008 ************

To make things even worse, Al-Zamili has announced that he will go back to his position in the Ministry in an interview today with RadioSawa. (RealAudio of the interview here)

Congrats to the Iraqi people.