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=> An article that won't be published in AINA

An article that won't be published in AINA

Posted by Tiglath (Guest) - Wednesday, May 21 2008, 14:00:18 (CEST)
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IRAQ: CHURCH OPPOSES EXECUTING ALLEGED KILLER OF BISHOP
Government says al-Qaeda in Iraq leader behind Mosul clergyman’s death.

Archbishop Paulus Faraj Rahho
ISTANBUL, May 20 (Compass Direct News) – Iraqi church leaders have spoken out against the death sentence given to the alleged murderer of a Chaldean bishop kidnapped in northern Iraq in March.

The Iraqi Central Criminal Court sentenced al-Qaeda in Iraq member Ahmed Ali Ahmed for killing Mosul’s Chaldean archbishop, a government spokesperson said on Sunday (May 18).

Archbishop Paulus Faraj Rahho’s corpse was found in a shallow grave in Mosul on March 13 after gunmen snatched him from his car two weeks prior near the city’s Holy Spirit parish.

Speaking from Baghdad, Auxiliary Bishop Shlemon Warduni said that Ahmed should be punished for his crime but that executing him would be pointless.

“If somebody is killed I think there is no use in it for the Iraqi people,” the Chaldean church leader said. “Our principles are love and pardon and reconciliation.”

Chaldean Archbishop of Kirkuk Louis Sako openly condemned the sentence.

“We are not satisfied with this decision, because the church is against the death penalty,” he told Agence France-Presse yesterday.

Government spokesperson Ali al-Dabbagh said Sunday that Ahmed, also known as Abu Omar, was wanted for a number “terror crimes against the people of Iraq,” Reuters reported. Al-Dabbagh did not reveal the date of the execution.

Details surrounding Archbishop Rahho’s death remain uncertain, church leaders said. “All that we know is from television,” Warduni told Compass today. “We heard that they have captured somebody who has killed [Rahho]. But first of all, Rahho was not killed.”

Morgue officials reported that Rahho’s body showed no signs of being shot, according to both Iraqi Christian leaders and The Associated Press. The autopsy showed that the Christian leader had died between five and seven days prior to the discovery of his body on March 13.

Rahho, 65, had been taking a number of medications for a heart condition but did not have them with him when he was kidnapped. In the wake of the archbishop’s death, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki had publicly vowed to find Rahho’s kidnappers.

Christian leaders told Compass that the abduction appeared to be a deliberate attempt to drive Christians out of Mosul rather than a bid for financial gain. During negotiations for the archbishop’s release, the kidnappers made extravagant demands for arms support from the Vatican while increasing the ransom to $3 million.

More than a dozen Christian clergymen in Iraq have been killed or kidnapped and held for ransom since July 2006. Dozens of churches have been bombed.

In an attempt to provide protection for Christian places of worship, government officials have begun recruiting Christians in the city of Mosul to serve as guards, Iraqi Christian website Ankawa.com reported on April 30.

Speaking from Baghdad today, Warduni called on Christians around the world to unite in prayer for all Iraqis, as well as for Rahho’s alleged killer.

“We should be praying for Ahmed Ali, our gospel says that, the Lord says that,” he said.

END

*** Photos of Archbishop Paulus Faraj Rahho are available electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and transmittal.

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