The Iraqi Finance Ministry said on Sunday that it had fired a ministry employee who tried in March to evict a Sunni Arab widow and her family from their home in a mostly Shiite neighborhood of western Baghdad. The woman refused to move and was shot dead the day after being visited by two Shiite men identifying themselves as Finance Ministry guards.
The ministry said in a written statement released to the New York Times that the employee had tried to evict the widow, Suaada Saadoun, 49, without getting official permission from the ministry.
The ministry did not name the employee, but Saadoun's relatives and neighbors said after her death on March 28 that the ministry official pushing for the eviction was named Ali Jezairi.
The statement said Finance Minister Bayan Jabr, a conservative Shiite, had ordered an investigation after reading about the case in an article published in the Times on March 30. The article documented Saadoun's efforts to avoid being evicted from her home and her subsequent murder.
The statement by the Finance Ministry represented the first time an Iraqi government body had announced that it was punishing someone for attempting an illegal eviction. But the ministry failed to address the killing of Saadoun.
Sectarian displacement has become widespread across Iraq, with Shiite and Sunni militias trying to rid neighborhoods in Baghdad and other cities of members of the rival sect.
South Korea’s air force yesterday apologized for a 2021 midair collision involving two fighter jets, a day after auditors said the pilots were taking selfies and filming during the flight and held them responsible for the accident. “We sincerely apologize to the public for the concern caused by the accident that occurred in 2021,” an air force spokesman told a news conference, adding that one of the pilots involved had been suspended from flying duties, received severe disciplinary action and has since left the military. The apology followed a report released on Wednesday by the South Korean Board of Audit and Inspection,
Indonesian police have arrested 13 people after shocking images of alleged abuse against small children at a daycare center went viral, sparking outrage across the nation, officials said on Monday. Police on Friday last week raided Little Aresha, a daycare center in Yogyakarta on Java island, following a report from a former employee. CCTV footage circulating on social media showed children, most younger than two, lying on the floor wearing only diapers, their hands and feet bound with rags. The police have confirmed that the footage is authentic. Police said they also found 20 children crammed into a room just 3m by 3m. “So
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