By NNN-KUNA
Baghdad : The Iraqi Cabinet has approved a draft bill that would end the immunity of the foreign security firms operating in the country against prosecution.
The new law scraps a decree issued by the interim Coalition Provisional Authority headed by US Administrator Paul Bremer in 2004 that many Iraqis viewed as little more than a “licence to kill.”
“The Iraqi cabinet has adopted a law on Tuesday that puts the foreign firms and those they employ under Iraqi law,” spokesman of the Iraqi government Dr Ali Al-Dabagh told KUNA.
He added that the immunity given to these firms was cancelled. The firms will also be subject to the laws on holding weapons, taxes and customs.
The law, which still needs to be passed by parliament, follows a shooting incident last month involving the US security firm Blackwater in which 17 Iraqis were killed. Blackwater said its guards acted lawfully, but the shooting enraged the Iraqi government.