Iraqi gov't sued over unpaid embassy rent of 350 million yen+

TOKYO, June 3 Kyodo -
A real estate agency has sued the Iraqi government for failing to pay a total
of some 350 million yen in rent on its embassy building in Tokyo over a period
of about 12 years, but a lawyer for Baghdad demanded Wednesday that the suit be
withdrawn.
An international law stipulates a judicial exemption for foreign governments so
as not to infringe on their sovereignty, but Japan's Supreme Court ruled in
July 2006 that Japanese courts have jurisdiction over foreign governments in
suits concerning such civil affairs as commercial transactions.
According to the suit, the Iraqi government signed a contract in 1983 with the
Tokyo-based agency to rent a six-story building in Tokyo's Minato Ward for use
as the Iraqi Embassy, but it began to fall behind in rent payments around 1994.
The monthly rent was 5.85 million yen and the total unpaid rent through January
2006, when the contract expired, amounted to 376.9 million yen. The agency
subtracted about 24 million yen which it held as a deposit when it sought
payment of the outstanding rent.
The lawyer representing the Iraqi government said at the first hearing of the
case at the Tokyo District Court that Baghdad will clarify its claim in future
hearings. The Iraqi Embassy has since been relocated to another part of Minato
Ward.
==Kyodo