CAIRO, May 31 (IslamOnline.net) - Deputy Head of the European Council for Fatwa and Research Sheikh Faisal Mawlawi prohibited Friday, May 30, giving any tip-offs that might help the U.S. occupation troops in Iraq hunt down members of the now disbanded Baath party.

“It is not permissible to help them (the Americans) arrest any Iraqi, whether he was a Baathist or not,” Sheikh Mawlawi told IslamOnline.net visitors in a live dialogue Friday.

“The U.S. troops are not in a legal or neutral position to try Baathists who committed crimes against Iraqi people,” he asserted.

The prominent scholar went on: “When, God willing, Iraq is liberated and an interim national government established, then all Iraqis accused of committing crimes, whether Baathists or not, could be tried by fair and independent Iraqi judges.

“The Americans are nothing but occupiers,” he said, asserting that many Baathists joined hands in resisting the U.S.-led invasion of their motherland.

Mawlawi also said it is not permissible for Arab countries to cooperate with the so-called American war on terror, noting that in most cases what is dubbed terrorism by Washington are in fact “Jihad and legitimate right,” such as resistance operations in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan.

The scholar also said that the U.S. should first “refrain from committing all kinds of terrorism against the peoples of Arab and Islamic countries and others,” before asking for others’ cooperation in combating terrorism.

On Tuesday, May 27, veteran Shiite authority Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani issued a fatwa, which prohibited the killing of former Iraqi officials or Baathists involved in torturing or arbitrarily arresting Iraqis, calling for putting them on trial.

He said that it was not justified to kill an Iraqi just for being a senior figure in Baath party or an operative for the toppled regime of Saddam Hussein.

“It is up to courts to decide (whether or not to sentence him/her to death)…And they must be set up first,” al-Sistani said.

Asked whether or not it was permissible to declassify Iraqi security files that included names of the former regime’s agents, the scholar said it was not permissible to do so.

“They (files) should be kept under the control of relevant authorities,” he said.

Sistani further asserted it was not permissible to defame those who claim that they cooperated with the former regime under duress by publishing their names.

He, however, said it is permissible to publish such names in some cases that serve “more important interests.”