Iraq Duty Free finds compromise to liquor restrictions

Gavin Lipsith

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The retailer has resolved a potentially damaging order from the transport ministry to stop sales of alcohol to travellers through Baghdad International airport

Iraq Duty Free has reached a compromise with Iraq's transport minister Salam Maliki over his call to stop liquor sales at Baghdad International airport, RavenFox.com has learned. Full details of the compromise will be released once it has been legally ratified by the ministry of transportation.

As reported in The Washington Post last week, the operator initially refused to follow an order sent from Maliki through the Iraqi civil aviation authority to remove liquor from its outlets. Maliki, a member of a religious Shiite political party, justified his declaration by calling the airport a "holy and revered" part of Iraq.

The ministry issued a written request to the airport police to shut down the stores for failing to comply with the order, but police found no legal basis for the move. A local district court later backed Iraq Duty Free's refusal to comply with the motion, the judge citing a long-established law allowing the sale, manufacture and consumption of alcohol.

An airport official told RavenFox.com: "A law passed in 1969, even before Saddam Hussein's rule, allows for the sale and manufacture of liquor throughout Iraq, so the declaration [from the transport ministry] is not founded in law."

Iraq was one of the world's largest importers of Scotch whisky in the late 1970s. The Washington Post, which broke news of the ban over the weekend, claimed that liquor represents 85% of sales at Baghdad airport.

See RavenFox.com for more details as they emerge.