(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-10-24 23:47

BAGHDAD -- The Iraqi government said on Wednesday that it has decided to revoke the immunity from prosecution that the foreign security firms enjoyed in the violence-plagued country.

"The cabinet held a meeting on Tuesday and decided to cancel the article that granted immunity for the foreign security companies that was issued by the dissolved CPA (Coalition Provision Authority) in 2004," the office of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said in a statement.

The cabinet decided to submit a new draft law regarding the issue to the next Tuesday cabinet meeting, the statement said.

Under then U.S. administrator in Iraq Paul Bremer, the CPA issued a law stipulating that the "multinational forces, foreign liaison missions, their personnel, property, funds and all international consultants shall be immune from Iraqi legal process. "

Earlier this month, the Iraqi government threatened to punish service members of foreign security firms, including a U.S.-based security firm Blackwater for their allegedly deliberate killing of 17 Iraqis in the Nusour Square in western Baghdad.