The investigator, who did not want to be named for reasons of security, recalled one case where he investigated a suspected leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, and later discovered the man had connections with a senior government official.
“We received threats, and two days after that, I was redeployed to a very dangerous area. I decided to resign,” he said.
In a highly charged political environment, some have accused Sunni Arab political factions of pushing for the amnesty as they will gain the most credit, since numerically, most of those detained are Sunni insurgents.
Salman al-Jomaili of the Iraqiyah bloc denied this was the case.
“This law is not what the rumours are suggest it is. We have made it clear that those who carried out terrorist attacks are not included in this amnesty,” Jomaili said.
The Shia politician Jaiyashi agreed, saying anyone convicted of a terrorist attacks would not be eligible. In any case, he said, other parts of the bill required the assent of victims’ relatives before a murderer could walk free.
There is also a danger that a mass release could prompt victims to deliver their own forms of justice.
IWPR spoke to one man whose father disappeared without trace in 2006 in Saidiyah, a Sunni neighbourhood in the south of Baghdad.
The son dropped out of university and spent time brooding on revenge. News that the men he holds responsible for the murder might be eligible for release offers him that chance.
“The law has protected them for years,” he said. “Their release will be a great opportunity to avenge my father’s death. People will know my father’s blood was not shed for nothing.”
Laith Hammoudi is IWPR’s editor in Iraq.
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