Signature Campaign to Sue Maliki over Fall of Mosul Launched

Basnews English 05/07/2017 - 20:41 Iraq

ERBIL— A signature campaign was launched in different Iraqi cities on Wednesday to sue the former Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki over fall of Mosul to Islamic State (IS) and the Camp Speicher massacre.

Iraqi hardline Shi'ite cleric Muqtada Sadr, Sadr Movement leader, was the first one who signed in the campaign, which is to gather support from one million participants.

The campaign is to raise a national appeal for investigation into the reasons which led Mosul fell to IS and the massacre at Camp Speicher, where over 1,500 Iraqi Air Force cadets were killed by the Islamic jihadists on June 12, 2014.

For both cases the finger is pointed at Maliki, the current Iraqi vice president, because the events occurred while he was still in office as the premier.

It's not clear how many people have so far signed the appeal but Sadr's participation in the campaign entails at least one million of his Shi'ite followers would also sign for Maliki's trial.

Sadr's recent call for Friday public protests against corruption in Iraqi PM Haidar al-Abadi's administration were welcomed and responded enthusiastically by a great number of people in Baghdad. Reportedly sometimes the number of the people in the rallies neared one million.

In the statement which the participants sign there is call on the UN and the Iraqi government to form a committee to investigate the events and to sue the perpetrators.

The committee should be formed from the people who are not affiliated with any party and are not employed in the public sector, the statement stipulates, adding the results of the investigation should be announced for the public and the international community.

Earlier Iraqi House of Representatives also accused Maliki of liability in the fall of Mosul but due to unidentified reasons the case was closed.

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