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17 July, 2005
Political instability in Iraq and lack of security there was felt dramatically by the ICEM and the global trade movement on 4 January. That day the body of Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU) Executive Committee member Hadi Saleh was found at his home in Baghdad after Saleh was strangled by electrical wire. Known as Abu Furat, Saleh, 58, was tortured prior to his murder, a murder in which the IFTU believes was done by remnants of Saddam Hussein’s secret police. Saleh was sentenced to death in 1969 by Saddam’s regime for engaging in independent trade union activities. After spending five years in prison, he fled Iraq for exile in Sweden. He returned in April 2003 in efforts to build an independent trade union movement. The ICEM and global trade union bodies are working with the IFTU and other Iraqi labour centers to construct a viable and independent union movement in the war-ravaged country.