in recent weeks, he has aggressively cracked down on the massive protests in Iraq.
But for just a few years ago was Najah al-Shammari sick leave on a sofa in an apartment in Stockholm.
He is still a Swedish citizen, confirms Sweden’s ministry of foreign affairs, but today he lives in Iraq and is one of the country’s most powerful and feared men.
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Najah al-Shammari, has Swedish citizenship under a different name. Private
in Custody
Najah al-Shammaris history is shrouded in mystery. Official documents show that the man came to Sweden in 2012 and got Swedish citizenship three years later.
It writes Aftonbladet.
In the period he has not had a stable job, but had been on sick leave, because he has claimed to have memory problems. He used instead the time to search various public benefits from the Swedish state, while in some periods he stayed in the home until he in 2015 was suspected of fraud.
the Case was dropped, before the iraqi-born Najah al-Shammari in 2016, was remanded in custody in Sweden for more serious cases. Then it is unclear what has happened with the man, who was later released from a forvaringsdom.
In the spring of 2019 appeared, however, he suddenly appear on the screen as Iraq’s new minister of defense. It came as a shock to the 27-year-old Swedish-iraker ‘Alex’, who could recognize the man from his time in Stockholm.
– I had seen him before, but could not believe that it was the same person, enter ‘Alex’, which is not his real name to Aftonbladet.
On social media had several, however, made the same notice of the man they knew to live a quiet life in a suburb to the Swedish capital.
– It is pretty scary. How did he come to Sweden? The basis on which he got a work permit? He led after the Swedish-iraqi?, sounds it from ‘Alex’, whose parents fled from the dictator Saddam Hussein’s terror in Iraq.
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the Situation in Iraq is extremely tense. 31. October selected the country’s prime minister to resign after violent Betlike riots. Photo: Khalid al-Mousily/Ritzau Scanpix
Close to Saddam.
According to the Swedish media was Najah al-Shammari for many years a prominent member of Saddam Hussein’s Baath party, like he was working close to the dictator, who was executed in 2006.
According to the iraqi media Baghdad Post has the secretary of defense, a master’s degree in military strategy. Up through the 90’s he was an officer in the iraqi army.
today he reached to the top, and as secretary of defense the responsibility for Iraq’s armed forces. Forces in recent months, according to Amnesty stands for torture in prisons and, according to the AFP news agency also stands behind the killing of hundreds of protesters since October.
A number of Swedish media, including the News Today and Expressen, writes Friday that the minister remains are suspected of fraud in connection with receiving public benefits, to which he was not entitled to.
Aftonbladet has tried to get a comment from the al-Shammari, but without success.
Amnesty on Iraq: Torture widespread in iraqi prisons
Claus Juul, a lawyer in the Amnesty International (AI) in Denmark, confirms that there is a high risk of being subjected to torture, if you are arrested and detained in Iraq.
– It is very widespread and comprehensive, says Claus Juul, who refers to the annual AI report’s description of the conditions in the jails and prisons in Iraq.
– There must not so much if you are unfortunate enough to find themselves on the wrong street corner, says Claus Juul, who states that he is nothing concerning the 19-year-old dane’s charge or the violent detention, he was subjected to in Baghdad and Kufah.
– But have the police in Iraq received information on that he is charged in a våbensag, then they have ‘something on him’, which could indicate that he is politically active or militant, and it will be able to expose him further for the torture, assess the lawyer.
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Policy – 31. oct. 2019 – at. 18:01 After the violent riots: Prime minister withdraws
See also: Three protesters are shot and killed during the turmoil in Iraq
