Joint Iran-Iraq committee to pursue US assassination of Gen. Soleimani: Rights official

The secretary of the Iranian Judiciary’s High Council for Human Rights says an investigation committee set up jointly by Iran and Iraq will follow up the case of the US assassination of top Iranian anti-terror commander General Qassem Soleimani.

Ali Baqeri Kani said that Tehran public prosecutor’s office for international offences, which is in charge of the case, is currently finalizing the indictment.

“We have started another procedure in cooperation with the Iraqis. They have the authority to pursue this crime because it took place in their country and their citizens were targeted and martyred,” he said on Thursday.

General Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), and his Iraqi trenchmate Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of Iraq’s anti-terror Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), were martyred along with their companions in a US drone strike authorized by former president Donald Trump near Baghdad International Airport on January 3, 2020.

Both commanders were highly popular because of their key role in eliminating the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in the region, particularly in Iraq and Syria.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Baqeri Kani referred to the February 8-11 visit by Iran’s Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raeisi to Iraq.

Among the issues raised during the trip was Iran-Iraq cooperation regarding the assassination case, he said.

“In this regard, a joint committee has been formed. On behalf of Iraq, the deputy attorney general and on behalf of Iran, the deputy Tehran prosecutor are represented in this committee,” the official noted.

“The process of investigating the assassination of Martyr Soleimani is supposed to be followed as seriously and swiftly as possible within the framework of the joint committee between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Iraq.”

On the first anniversary of the cowardly assassination operation, a Baghdad court issued an arrest warrant for Trump as part of its investigation into the targeted killings. 

Iran also issued a warrant for the arrest of the ex-US president and asked Interpol to relay it as a “red notice” to other police forces around the world.