On April 6, the Iraqi Public Security Directorate announced...

On April 6, the Iraqi Public Security Directorate announced that 4 men were executed for the killing of Mohammed Sadeq al-Sadr, a prominent Shiite Muslim spiritual leader and his sons Mustafa and Mua'mal in the holy city of Najaf last February. The statement from the Iraqi security service named the executed men as Abdul-Hassan Abbas al-Kufi, Ali Kadhim Jumam, Ahmed Mustafa Hassan Ardabili and Haider Ali Hussein Ardabili. Iraq has previously said that some of the executed men were students at a religious academy in Najaf, about 160km south of Baghdad. Others were people who had been expelled from Iraq but who had returned to the country. Iraq has said it had nothing to do with the murder but United Nations human rights investigator, former Dutch foreign minister Max van der Stoel, cast doubt on the Government's version of events.