Iran forms committee to track down those behind Soleimani assassination

TASNIM

Iran’s Judiciary said Friday it has formed a committee to track down those accused of complicity in the US assassination of Iranian Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani.

Seyyed Ashrafi, a deputy prosecutor and the special investigator dealing with the case of General Soleimani’s assassination, said the committee has been formed given the fact that some of those accused of being involved in the January assassination regularly visit neighboring countries.

He said Iran has also provided judicial representation to six of the countries where American bases are located, Press TV reported.

“We were recently informed that the Iraqi government has prepared a response to this representation, and is submitting it through diplomatic channels,” he added.

The official said Iran is also preparing a judicial representation addressed to the US judiciary system so as to test them and see whether they would prosecute the culprits for the charges leveled against them.

He said Iran has provided the Interpol with the names of 45 American nationals involved in this killing, but unfortunately the Interpol has refused to issue an international arrest warrant for them because of the current political situation.

The US assassinated General Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), along with Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy head of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces, and their companions by targeting their vehicles outside Baghdad’s international airport on January 3.

The drone strike was carried out under the direction of US President Donald Trump, with the Pentagon taking responsibility for the attack.

Several million people attended the funeral processions held for the commanders in the Iraqi cities of Kadhimiya, Baghdad, Karbala and Najaf as well as the Iranian cities of Ahvaz, Mashhad, Tehran, Qom and Kerman.

NBC News has revealed the details of the assassination, saying the operation used Israeli intelligence and was run from the US Central Command (CENTCOM) headquarters in Qatar.

Iran's Judiciary chief Ebrahim Raeisi said in February that judicial officials in the Islamic Republic have been in contact with Iraqi authorities to pursue the case of Lieutenant General Soleimani's assassination by terrorist US forces in Iraq.