Ali al-Shemari is an Iraq

Iraq

Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

i politician from the Sadrist Movement

Sadrist Movement

The Sadrist Movement is an Iraqi Islamist national movement led by Muqtada al-Sadr. The movement draws wide support from across Iraqi society and especially from the Shi'a poor in the country. The most important person in setting the goals and the philosophy of the movement was Grand Ayatollah...

 who was the Health Minister of Iraq

Council of Ministers of Iraq

The Cabinet of Iraq is the executive branch of the government of Iraq.The National Assembly of Iraq elects a President of State who along with two deputies form the Presidency Council. The Presidency Council appoints the Prime Minister who appoints the Council of Ministers, all of whom must be...

 from May 20, 2006 until April 16, 2007.

Al-Shemari's deputy, Hakim al-Zamili

Hakim al-Zamili

Hakim Abbas Mousa Abbas al-Zamili is an Iraqi politician from the Sadrist Movement who was deputy Health Minister from May 2006 until April 2007.- Health Ministry :...

, and his security chief, Hamid al-Shammari, were arrested and tried in 2007 on claims they ran a death squad that attacked Sunni Arabs patients and visitors in Health Ministry hospitals. Among their supposed victims was Ammar al-Saffar

Ammar al-Saffar

Ammar al-Saffar was the Deputy Health Minister of Iraq. On November 19, 2006, he became the highest-ranking Iraqi official to be kidnapped when he was seized by men in police uniforms....

, another deputy heath minister who was preparing to expose corruption in the ministry, kidnapped in November 2006. Both men were cleared of all charges when key witnesses failed to show up after facing alleged intimidation.

Following the arrest of his deputies, Shemari fled Iraq.

Iraq War casualty estimate

While Health Minister, al-Shemari estimated that between the March 2003 invasion of Iraq

2003 invasion of Iraq

The 2003 invasion of Iraq , was the start of the conflict known as the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations...

 and November 2006 there had been 100,000 to 150,000 Iraqi violent deaths.

From a November 9, 2006 International Herald Tribune

International Herald Tribune

The International Herald Tribune is a widely read English language international newspaper. It combines the resources of its own correspondents with those of The New York Times and is printed at 38 sites throughout the world, for sale in more than 160 countries and territories...

article:

"Each day we lost 100 persons, that means per month 3,000, per year it's 36,000, plus or minus 10 percent," al-Shemari said. "So by three years, 120,000, half year 20,000, that means 140,000, plus or minus 10 percent," he said, explaining how he came to the figures. "This includes all Iraqis killed — police, ordinary people, children," he said, adding that people who were kidnapped and later found dead were also included in his estimate. He said the figures were compiled by counting bodies brought to "forensic institutes" or hospitals.

A November 11, 2006 Taipei Times

Taipei Times

The Taipei Times is one of the three major English-language newspapers in the Republic of China the other two being the Taiwan News and The China Post...

story reported:

"Al-Shemari said on Thursday [Nov. 9, 2006] that he based his figure on an estimate of 100 bodies per day brought to morgues and hospitals -- though such a calculation would come out closer to 130,000 in total."

The article also stated:

An official with the ministry also confirmed the figure yesterday [Nov. 10, 2006], but later said that the estimated deaths ranged between 100,000 and 150,000. "The minister was misquoted. He said between 100,000-150,000 people were killed in three-and-a-half years," the official said.

See also

• Council of Ministers of Iraq
  Council of Ministers of Iraq
  The Cabinet of Iraq is the executive branch of the government of Iraq.The National Assembly of Iraq elects a President of State who along with two deputies form the Presidency Council. The Presidency Council appoints the Prime Minister who appoints the Council of Ministers, all of whom must be...
  
  
• Iraqi Health Ministry casualty survey
  Iraqi Health Ministry casualty survey
  On January 9, 2008 the World Health Organization reported the results of the "Iraq Family Health Survey" published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study surveyed 9,345 households across Iraq and was carried out in 2006 and 2007...
  
  
• Casualties of the Iraq War
• Iraq War