BAGDAD (AP) – Iraq on Saturday opened an investigation into the death of a high-level director of a Korean company implementing a strategic port assignment in southern Iraq, after initial reports from Iraqi lawmakers called the incident a suicide.
Park Chul-Ho, director of South Korea’s Daewoo E
After several officials refuted initial findings that the death was due to suicide, a committee was formed to investigate Park’s death, which began painting on Saturday, three Iraqi officials said.
The investigation will come with surveillance photographs recovered around the complex, said Walid al-Sharif, mayor of al-Fao district in Basra.
Hours after his body was found, the Department of Transportation, which oversees the port, said Park’s death was suicide and that his death would not derail the project, in a statement.
But Vice President Hassan Karim al-Kaabi then asked police to conduct a serious investigation into cases related to Park’s death.
Al-Kaabi questioned the timing of Park’s death because he intervened after an announcement through the Ministry of Transport about the imminent signing of a contract for the next phase of the Fao port project, he said in comments to the state media. We hope that the port of Fao will provide a significant touch to the Iraqi economy and offer an option to the country’s most important cargo port in um Qasr.
Hakim al-Zamili, leader of the Sadrist movement, which holds the largest number of seats in the Iraqi parliament, echoed al-Kaabi’s suspicions and demanded that security agencies deal with the case.
Numerous foreign corporations paint in the southern province of Basra, mainly in the oil sector.
At the request of parliament, the Ministry of the Interior formed a committee which it then sent to Basra to publicize the investigation, according to spokesman Saad Maan.