BAGHDAD (AFP) – Two former security guards for Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdel Mahdi plotted and carried out a massive bank heist in Baghdad that left eight police guards dead, a prosecutor said Thursday.

The pre-dawn raid on a branch of the Al-Rafidain bank on July 28 saw the robbers make off with 3.8 million dollars, which was later recovered but has left a trail implicating two of Mahdi's close protection squad.
Nine men are on trial for the robbery, including Jafar Lazim Eshkaya al-Timimi, a captain in the Presidential Guard, and his nephew, Lieutenant Amin Karim, who also previously served in the unit.
A criminal court in Baghdad named Lazim as “the main executor” of the robbery, alongside Karim, now a policemen, and two others: a high-ranking army officer and a safe-breaker. All four escaped and are being tried in absentia.
The five remaining men on trial include two who were employed as police guards for banks in the capital, who both confessed that they knew about the planned heist but insist they took no part in it.
“Amin Karim came to me, and he is a lieutenant, a former officer in the presidential brigade, and he suggested to me and Basheer to rob the bank,” said Ali Ouda, one of the suspects.
“Amin explained the plan to me, with other persons, a day later, Basheer and I decided to reject this idea, and we told him that we cannot do this, because the state is strong and there are cameras there, we can't do it.” he said.
Ouda said the robbery was scheduled for July 23 and when the date passed he thought the plan had run aground, but he was telephoned by Karim five days later, who then confessed to him that he had carried out the robbery.
“He asked us to go to his house, which is located in the presidential square,” he said. “I saw he was confused, and carrying a gun, he was with Mohannad Abdel Saheb (the army officer), he asked us what we heard, we told him that we heard that bank was robbed.
“He said I'm the one who robbed it and killed people. If you tell anyone, you will die.”
Ouda and his bank guard colleague Basheer then went to the authorities and told them what they knew, but they are accused by the prosecution of taking part in the robbery, a charge that both men deny.
“We went to the joint security centre and told them about it,” Ouda said, explaining a robbery plan that would use the guards to gain access to the bank under the false pretence of an official inspection.
The court session, the second hearing of the case, was attended by legal advisers from the vice president's office.
The trial is scheduled to continue on September 2.