Shafaq News/ A security source reported, on Friday, the dismantling of a cell promoting the dissolved and banned Baath Party in Iraq, in Saladin governorate, the hometown of the late former Iraqi regime leader Saddam Hussein.

The source told Shafaq News Agency that “force received intelligence regarding two individuals promoting the ideas of the banned dissolved Baath Party in Baiji district (40 km north of Tikrit),” indicating that “the security force has successfully arrested one of them, and he has confessed about a group of people who promote the ideas of the banned party in Iraq.”

“The force seized with the detainee leaflets promoting the dissolved party and during interrogations he revealed other individuals cooperating with him in Saladin governorate,” noting that “the detainee was transferred to a detention center in preparation for being presented to the investigation and the judiciary to receive his just punishment,” the source added.

“During the current year, the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) intelligence has managed to arrest four people accused of promoting the banned Baath Party in Saladin on April 26 in al-Dour district,” the source said.

In July 2016, the Iraqi parliament passed a bill banning the Baath Party, along with all dissolved and racist entities and, terrorist and takfiri parties and activities.

The Baath Party ruled for nearly four decades in Iraq, mostly under the leadership of former President Saddam Hussein, before the United States and its allies overthrew him in the Third Gulf War in 2003.

The Baath regime under Hussein committed many crimes that the Specialized Criminal Court in Iraq classified as “crimes of genocide” and sentenced the late president and officials close to him to the death penalty by hanging until death.