News / Politics

Tehran will push Baghdad to try perpetrators of Gen. Soleimani’s assassination: Top official

Monday, 30 January 2023 11:06 AM [ Last Update: Monday, 30 January 2023 11:24 AM ]

Kazem Gharibabadi, the Iranian Judiciary chief’s deputy for international affairs and secretary of the country’s High Council for Human Rights, speaks with media at Baghdad International airport, Iraq, on January 30, 2023.

A senior Iranian Judiciary official has arrived in Iraq’s capital to follow up on the murder case of Iran’s top anti-terror commander General Qassem Soleimani, saying Tehran will push Baghdad for the trial of perpetrators of the assassination.

The judiciary delegation, led by Kazem Gharibabadi, the Judiciary chief’s deputy for international affairs and secretary of the country’s High Council for Human Rights, arrived in Baghdad on Monday.

Speaking in an interview with al-Alam television network upon his arrival at the Baghdad airport, Kazem Gharibabadi said pushing for the acceleration of the legal process for the case of the assassination of General Soleimani tops the agenda of the visit.

“We hope that an indictment will be presented to the court in Iraq as soon as possible so that the perpetrators are brought to justice,” he said.

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 Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), were martyred along with their companions in a US drone strike on January 3, 2020.

The strike near Baghdad International Airport was authorized by then-US president Donald Trump.

The two prominent anti-terror commanders were tremendously respected and admired across the region for their instrumental role in fighting and decimating the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in the region, particularly in Iraq and Syria.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Gharibabadi said the delegation will also discuss counter-terror operations with the Iraqi officials, noting that “Both Iran and Iraq have suffered a lot because of the actions of the terrorist groups.”

“It is necessary to maintain close cooperation, at the level of national courts as well as international and human rights forums, in order to confront terrorists and terrorist groups.”

He added that Iran will discuss the issue of the presence of “some fugitives in certain areas in Iraq.”

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