Kurdish MP denies report on transfer of Saudi inmates to Iraq's Kurdistan region

A senior Kurdish lawmaker in the Iraqi parliament rejected the news reports alleging that Saudi inmates in Iraq are due to be transferred to the Kurdistan region on the basis of a recent agreement. Some Arab media outlets have reported that Saudi Arabia and Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government have agreed on the transfer of Saudi prisoners held in Iraq’s prisons to the Kurdistan region. “The Iraqi parliament is studying the draft for the exchange of prisoners between Iraq and Saudi Arabia, but this has nothing to do with the Kurdistan region,” Kurdish Lawmaker Shawn Mohamed Taha told FNA. Saudi Arabia had earlier asked the Iraqi government to pave the way for meetings between the Saudi inmates in the country with their families by transferring the Saudi prisoners to the Kurdistan region. “The prisons of Iraq's Kurdistan region are part of Iraq’s prisons … and if Riyadh and Baghdad reach an agreement over this request, it would have nothing to do with the Kurdistan region,” Taha said. In July, Iraqi authorities completed the final procedures for the release of 44 Saudi prisoners who were deported to the Kingdom in line with the prisoner exchange agreement signed recently between the Saudi and Iraqi governments. Iraqi passport and residency authorities visited the Saudi inmates in all Iraqi prisoners and took their fingerprints in order for them to get their passports stamped with exit visas. The Saudi delegation which visited Iraq in early 2013 to sign the agreement returned to Iraq in July to finalize some relevant procedures. Saudi Arabia also deported 66 Iraqi prisoners to Iraq in exchange for the Saudi prisoners.