ROMANIA: IRAQI AMBASSADOR MURAD SHARES WITNESS

C O N F I D E N T I A L BUCHAREST 000787 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR EUR/NCE E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/01/2017 TAGS: MOPS MARR PREL PGOV RO SUBJECT: ROMANIA: IRAQI AMBASSADOR MURAD SHARES WITNESS REPORT ON DEATH OF ALI MURAD REF: BUCHAREST 004 Classified By: DCM Mark A. Taplin, for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) Iraqi Ambassador Abdel Murad sent a letter following up his earlier one (reftel) regarding the death of his father-in-law during an incident involving U.S. troops in Baghdad last Christmas. He confirmed that his Baghdad relatives are staying with him in Bucharest, and they have yet to receive any response to their inquiries regarding the death of Ali Murad. Ambassador Murad accompanied the letter with Fadhila Karam Mohamad's (Ali Murad's widow) account (sent to EUR/NCE by email) of what happened the night in question, as reported to her nephew, an FAO official resident in Cairo. ¶2. (C) Begin text of Murad letter to Ambassador: Excellency, I have the honor to convey to you my sincere greetings, kindly asking you to pay attention, once again, to the tragic circumstances of the death of my beloved father-in-law, Ali Murad, who has been killed in the night of 25th December, at his home, in Baghdad. No investigation of this case has been done till now and his house is still devastated and empty, because of the terrorists who dominate the zone of the Christian Assyrians, called "Dora", in the south of Baghdad, where is situated this house in which our family lived since five decades. Unfortunately, the suspicions hang over the said General Mohand Witwit, director of the military intelligence of Russafa quarter in Baghdad, who is acting on American army's order in Iraq. He didn't serve, but he has been appointed by the Americans in Babylon, the days of Saddam Hussein' collapse, in April 2003. And he will be sent to the Iraqi Embassy in London as Deputy Military Attach, as a reward for his bad deeds in Baghdad... Please find, Excellency, herewith enclosed, the English translation of Mrs. Fadhila Karam Mohamad's account, who describes with precision the details of the events. Mrs. Fadhila Karam is my mother-in-law and she is living now with us in Bucharest, after she lost one of her eardrums. We are doing our best to help her to recover, after the terrible trauma she suffered. I would be grateful to you, Excellency, to be so kind to send the account to the concerned authorities in the United States of America, in order to investigate with General Mohand Witwit, before his leaving Baghdad. Yours sincerely, /s/ Adel Murad Ambassador Bucharest, June 26, 2007 End Text. TAUBMAN