Iran's top judge says Tehran will take Trump to International Court for Soleimani's assassination

Sputnik
Mon, 13 Jan 2020 18:53 UTC

© Fotolia / Borna_Mir

The Iranian Army ended large-scale military drills Wednesday with a massive naval parade hosted by the country's President Hassan Rouhani

Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp's Quds Force, died in Baghdad on January 3 when the vehicle he was traveling in was struck by a missile launched by a US drone. Soleimani's death brought relations between Iran and the US to a new low.

The Iranian government will seek to prosecute US President Donald Trump for the assassination of Maj. Gen. Soleimani, Iranian Chief Justice Ebrahim Raisi has said.

"We should collar the American president as the first defendant. He should be prosecuted and taken to court in front of the world," Raisi said Monday during a meeting of judiciary officials, his remarks cited by the Fars News Agency.

© AFP/ HO / Iraqi military

A destroyed vehicle on fire following a US strike on January 3, 2020 on Baghdad international airport road in which top Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani was killed along with eight others, including the deputy head of Iraq's powerful Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary force.

"In our view, because the Martyr Soleimani was a symbol of combating terrorism and supporting the oppressed, his assassination violates every law," Raisi added.

The senior judicial figure called on legal scholars to "shout their protest," and warned that if Iran does not pursue justice for the commission of "such a horrific crime" against its general, "we will not be able to follow up any others."

Iran's Human Rights Committee and Foreign Ministry are expected to file a formal complaint to international organizations on Trump's potential prosecution at a later date, according to Raisi.

Raisi also clarified that Iran plans to pursue the case against Trump whether it occurs during his term in office or after the end of his presidency.

Soleimani, 62, was killed in Baghdad on January 3 when the convoy he and a senior Iraqi Shia militia leader were riding in was struck by a US Reaper drone. Last week, Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi revealed that Soleimani was in the Iraqi capital on a peace mission brokered by Baghdad to try to reduce tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia. During the more than two decades that he served as commander of the IRGC's Quds Force, Soleimani coordinated multiple Iranian anti-terrorist operations across the Middle East, targeting Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda* in Afghanistan in 2001 and joining the Syrian and Iraqi governments in the fight against Daesh (ISIS)* between 2014 and 2017.

A picture shows a destroyed vehicle on fire following a US strike on January 3, 2020 on Baghdad international airport road in which top Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani was killed along with eight others, including the deputy head of Iraq's powerful Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary force.

* Terrorist groups outlawed in Russia and many other countries.

Comment: It seems Tehran may have a case:

US President Donald Trump approved the assassination of Iranian Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani seven months ago, NBC News reported on Monday, citing five current and former senior administration officials.

The president first issued the directive to kill Soleimani in June, after Iran shot down a US drone, the report said.

The order authorised the assassination in response to any Iranian attacks resulted in the death of American citizens, the report said, adding that Trump's directive came with the condition that he would have the final authority to sign off on the operation.

Trump gave his final approval for the assassination after the storming of the embassy in Baghdad on 31 December, according to the report.

The reported timing of the presidential order appears to undermine Trump's assertion that he authorised the assassination after learning that Soleimani was planning "imminent" attacks on US embassies in the Middle East.

Israel (unsurprisingly) should be called to account too:

According to an NBC News report late Friday, the Jewish state was involved in the January 3 operation, handing the Americans key intelligence details.

The information helped confirm intelligence provided by informants at a Syrian airport that Soleimani had been on a nighttime flight from Damascus to Baghdad, the report said, quoting two sources with direct knowledge of the operation and other US officials briefed on it.

After his plane landed, it was a simple matter of using drones to track him exiting the aircraft and entering a car, which was later targeted with four missiles.

Israeli media reported the day after the strike that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had briefed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of time about the US plans to kill Soleimani.

The Reuters news agency reported Thursday that a series of Syrian and Iraqi informants are suspected of providing the US with the information that led to Soleimani's killing.

The suspected informants — two security employees at Baghdad airport and two workers in private Syrian airline Cham Wings — gave the intelligence about Soleimani's secret flight from Damascus to Baghdad, the report said, quoting security officials, Baghdad airport employees and Cham Wings employees.

Trump maintains he was right to order the assassination:

The president claimed in tweets marred with misspellings that it does not matter if Soleimani presented an imminent threat to the US, something he had said previously to defend the assassination, because of the general's "horrible past."

Trump also accused the media of trying to portray "terrorist Soleimani" as a "wonderful guy."

Though the president has claimed the January 3 assassination of Soleimani was due to the general planning attacks against US forces and embassies, his own defense secretary admitted on Sunday that he "didn't see" any specific evidence to suggest those attacks were imminent.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also struggled in a recent press conference to define the "imminent" threat Soleimani presented to the US. He claimed the US "got it right" with their decision to kill the general.

Some have pointed to the hypocritical about-face made by the Trump administration with regard to Soleimani:

• Iranian General Soleimani wants to 'slap West in face' with evidence of US-Daesh links
• Pompeo: I lied about Soleimani 'imminent attacks'
• Who's really in charge? Mossad targets Soleimani, Trump pulls the trigger
• Former Obama aide: Killing Soleimani was in Israel's interest, 'not in the American interest'
• Clausewitz, Trump And Soleimani: American Politics is a Continuation of Israel's Wars by Different Means
• Soleimani's assassination: The deeper story is how US hegemony is slipping away