13 Facts About Mithal al-Alusi

Mithal Jamal Hussein Ahmad al-Alusi is an Iraqi politician and the leader of the Iraqi Ummah Party.

Mithal al-Alusi was elected to the Iraqi Council of Representatives as an independent in the December 2005 election and was elected in the 2014 Iraqi parliamentary election as part of the Civil Democratic Alliance which is an Iraqi political coalition formed by various liberal and civil figures and his party one seat, represented by himself.

Mithal al-Alusi arrived in fifth place in Baghdad out of seventy-one seats.

Mithal al-Alusi is a Sunni Muslim Arab politician and supports a close alliance with the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Turkey and Israel.

Mithal al-Alusi returned to Iraq in October 2003 and joined the Iraqi National Congress.

In September 2004, after making a public visit to Israel, Mithal al-Alusi was expelled from the Iraqi National Congress and sacked from his job at the De-Baathification Commission.

Mithal al-Alusi was indicted by the Central Criminal Court of Iraq for "having contacts with enemy states", a crime under a 1969 Baathist law.

Mithal al-Alusi was released after Iraq's Federal Supreme Court, Iraq's highest court, ruled in his favour on 24 November 2008, stating it was no longer a crime to travel to Israel, and that Iraqis could travel to wherever they wanted.

Mithal al-Alusi praised Israel, saying "In Israel, there is no occupation, there is liberalism" and criticised Iran, saying it was continually meddling in Iraq.

Mithal al-Alusi called for intelligence sharing between Iraq, Israel, the United States, Jordan, Turkey, and Kuwait.

Mithal al-Alusi claimed village directors prevented women from voting in rural areas.

Mithal al-Alusi called on the United States to launch an investigation to the allegedly fixed election results.

The Supreme Court later ratified the results and as a result Mithal al-Alusi lost his seat.