Iraqi
lawmakers have called for former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other
senior political and security officials in his government to go on trial for
the fall of Mosul to Islamic State insurgents last year. A number of members of
Iraqi parliamentary committee of investigation into the fall of Mosul confirmed
on Sunday that al-Maliki’s name was among those they intend to refer to court.
(Reuters/DW, 16 August)
The report
detailing the committee’s findings was presented to the parliamentary speaker,
Salim al-Juburi, who said he would pass it on to Iraq’s prosecutor general for
possible legal action.
“No one
is above the law and accountability to the people,” Jaburi said in a statement
after receiving the report, which was approved by 16 votes of the committee’s
24 members.
Reuters
reported other officials named in the report include the former governor of
Mosul, Atheel al-Nujaifi, former acting Defense Minister Sadoun al-Dulaimi, the
former head of the army, Gen. Babakir Zebari, and Lt. Gen. Mahdi al-Gharrawi,
the former operational commander of Nineveh province, of which Mosul is the
capital.
ISIL
insurgents launched an offensive on Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, on 9
June 2014 and overran it a day later. A number of Iraqi army divisions
collapsed during the initial assault and fled, abandoning weapons and heavy
equipment, which was then captured by ISIL fighters.
File
photo: Former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki (Al Arabiya)
Despite ineffectiveness in handling some of Iraq's security challenges while in office , Nouri Maliki nonetheless represent a mile stone in Iraq's contemporary politics .I came across a photo of him attending a conference in Teheran last week , apparently in very good health and sharply dressed for the occasion . In a more normal country that's should hardly raise an eyebrow , but can anyone remember a former Iraqi head of the state not being violently overthrown or meet an untimely end ? In itself that's a sign of political progress .
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