Iraqi Delegation Heads to Iran for Joint Probe Into Assassination of Soleimani, al-Muhandis

Judicial delegations from Iran and Iraq will meet in Tehran on Monday to investigate the assassination of Lt. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, the powerful Iranian military leader who headed the Islamic Revolutionary Guards’ elite Quds Force, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy chief of Iraq’s paramilitary Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), who were killed in a US drone strike on January 3, 2020, near Baghdad International Airport.

The website of Iran’s High Council for Human Rights on Saturday quoted council secretary Kazem Gharibabadi as saying this would be the fourth meeting of the joint judicial committee set up last year by the two countries to look into the case. Gharibabadi, who also serves as the Iranian judiciary chief’s deputy for international affairs, said that in the upcoming meeting, decisions made during the previous three meetings would be reviewed and new information on the case would be exchanged between the sides.

Iran has finished its investigation and will issue indictments against those who ordered and carried out the attack by January 21, Gharibabadi said. Last week, he said 94 Americans had been charged with involvement in the attack, the semiofficial Mehr news agency reported. The three main culprits were former US President Donald Trump, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and former US Central Command head Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr.

Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council Chairman Faiq Zidane said at a commemoration ceremony on Thursday, that a warrant had been issued for the arrest of former President Trump over the assassination of Soleimani and al-Muhandis.