Baqir Jabr al-Zubeidi | |
Native Name: | باقر جبر الزبيدي |
Office: | Minister of Transport |
Term Start: | September 2014 |
Term End: | August 2016 |
Predecessor: | Hadi Al-Amiri |
Successor: | Kazim Finjan Al Hamami |
President: | Fuad Masum |
Primeminister: | Haider Al-Abadi |
Office2: | Minister of Finance |
Term Start2: | May 2006 |
Term End2: | December 2010 |
Predecessor2: | Ali Abdul-Amir Allawi |
Successor2: | Rafi al-Issawi |
President2: | Jalal Talabani |
Primeminister2: | Nouri al-Maliki |
Office3: | Minister of Interior |
Term Start3: | April 2005 |
Term End3: | May 2006 |
Predecessor3: | Falah Hassan al-Naqib |
Successor3: | Jawad Bulani |
President3: | Jalal Talabani |
Primeminister3: | Ibrahim al-Jaafari |
Office4: | Minister of Housing and Reconstruction |
Term Start4: | September 2003 |
Term End4: | June 2004 |
Predecessor4: | Coalition Provisional Authority |
Successor4: | Omar Farouk |
President4: | Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer |
Primeminister4: | Iraqi Governing Council |
Birth Place: | Amara Province, Kingdom of Iraq |
Nationality: | Iraqi |
Party: | Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq |
Alma Mater: | University of Basra |
Occupation: | Politician |
Nickname: | Bayan Jabr Solagh |
Allegiance: | Badr Brigades |
Commands: | Commander of the Badr Brigades |
Baqir Jabr Al-Zubeidi (Arabic: باقر جبر الزبيدي|Bāqir Jarb al-Zabīdī), also known as Bayan Jabr Solagh (Arabic: بيان باقر صولاغ|Bayān Bāqir Sūlāġ), is a former commander of the Badr Brigades who served as the Finance Minister of Iraq in the government of Nouri al-Maliki. He served as Minister of Interior, in charge of the police, in the Iraqi Transitional Government and was Minister of Housing and Reconstruction of the Iraqi Governing Council. He is a senior member of the Shi'a United Iraqi Alliance as well as a leader in the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI).
Born in 1946 in the Maysan Governorate, Jabr became a Shi'a activist while studying engineering at Baghdad University in the 1970s. He escaped to Iran amid former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's crackdown on Shi'a political groups and joined the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI). He later headed SCIRI's office in Syria. According to the Independent newspaper Jabr was a former commander of SCIRI's militia, the Badr Brigades.
Under Jabr's control, the Interior Ministry in 2006 was accused by the United Nations human rights chief in Iraq, John Pace, of executing and torturing to death hundreds of Iraqis every month.[1]
On 3 January 2006, his sister was reported kidnapped from Baghdad by Iraqi insurgents. Parts of central Baghdad were locked down as police searched for the woman.[2] She was released two weeks later after a ransom was paid by him.