A recording attributed to him included a threat to attack Najaf… and described the “crowd” as a “nation of cowards.”
It is expected that the Iraqi judiciary will hear two lawsuits filed by two lawyers asking for an investigation into the leaked audio recording of a speech by former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, during which he criticized and accused most political figures, especially the leader of the “Sadr movement” Muqtada al-Sadr.
In a new clip of what has become known in Iraq as “WikiLeaks al-Maliki”, the former prime minister threatens to attack Najaf in order to “protect the religious authority” if al-Sadr attacks it. He also talks about a “cruel war from which no one gets out” and that he prepared for that by arming 15 gatherings to confront it.
The two lawyers are asking the judiciary to hold al-Maliki accountable for the hadith attributed to him, which he previously denied, because it represents “a prejudice to Iraqi national security and incitement to sedition and sectarian strife.” A human rights source told Asharq Al-Awsat that al-Maliki could be held accountable in light of his secretly recorded statements in a private session, because they fulfill the conditions for a terrorist crime stipulated in Article Two of the Anti-Terrorism Law. But the source excludes “the possibility of realistic accountability for the owners of this dangerous act, because the justice systems in Iraq are under the influence of political influence.”
The activist and journalist Ali Fadel, who published, last Wednesday, a clip of the audio recording attributed to Al-Maliki, said that it extends to 48 minutes, but preferred to publish small clips of it that do not exceed one or two minutes on a daily basis, with the aim of sustaining the momentum of its impact and effect among popular and political circles.
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