The transfer is symbolic within the waning days of Mr. Trumpβs presidency.
An arrest warrant was issued on Thursday for outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump in reference to the killing of an Iranian common and a strong Iraqi militia chief final 12 months, Iraq’s judiciary stated.
The warrant was issued by a choose in Baghdad’s investigative court docket tasked with probing the Washington-directed drone strike that killed Gen. Qassim Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the court docket’s media workplace stated. They had been killed outdoors the capital’s airport final January.
Al-Muhandis was the deputy chief of the state-sanctioned In style Mobilisation Forces, an umbrella group composed of an array of militias, together with Iran-backed teams, fashioned to battle the Islamic State group.
Soleimani headed the expeditionary Quds pressure of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The arrest warrant was for a cost of premeditated homicide, which carries the loss of life penalty on conviction. It’s unlikely to be carried out however symbolic within the waning days of Mr. Trump’s presidency.
The choice to concern the warrant “was made after the choose recorded the statements of the claimants from the household of Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis,β based on an announcement from the Supreme Judicial Council. The investigation into the killings is ongoing, the court docket stated.
The killings sparked a diplomatic disaster and strained U.S.-Iraq ties, drawing the ire of Shiite political lawmakers who handed a non-binding decision to strain the federal government to oust overseas troops from the nation.
Iran-backed teams have since stepped up assaults in opposition to the American presence in Iraq, resulting in threats by Washington to shutter its Baghdad diplomatic mission.
