Three bodyguards for an outspoken Iraqi member of parliament have confessed to playing a role in several terrorist attacks, including a 2007 bomb attack in the Iraqi parliament building, a military spokesman said Sunday, dpa reported.
At a press conference in Baghdad on Sunday, Iraqi military spokesman Major General Qassim Atta said that three bodyguards hired by Sunni lawmaker Mohammed al-Daini had confessed to helping to plan attacks that left hundreds of people dead.
In a video broadcast on Iraqi television on Sunday, Riad Ibrahim, who is al-Daini's nephew and bodyguard, said he helped expel Iraqis from their homes in an effort to change the demographic composition of areas and helped plan several attacks on al-Daini's behalf.
Ibrahim also said he escorted a man into the parliament with a letter from al-Daini authorizing him to be in the building. The man then entered the parliament's cafeteria and detonated explosives strapped to his body, killing himself and eight others.
Al-Daini's three bodyguards were arrested on Tuesday.
"We have sent a letter to the Higher Judicial Council requesting it to lift al-Daini's parliamentary immunity," Atta said.
Al-Daini called the allegations baseless in remarks carried by the BBC's Arabic service on Sunday. He said he was being targeted for his "nationalist stances."
Al-Daini has accused Iraq's Shiite-led government of abusing the human rights of prisoners in Iraqi jails and has decried "Iranian influence" on Iraqi Shiite political parties.
In a press conference after the arrest of his bodyguards on Tuesday, al-Daini told reporters they had been arrested by the Baghdad Brigade, which he said receives its orders directly from Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, without any legal or constitutional constraints.
Al-Daini said that the same "unaccountable" security force also arrested his secretary on February 17.
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