An Iraqi lawyer has filed a complaint with public prosecutors against a senior Iran-backed politician and militia leader over remarks that militias played a role in quelling the pro-reform mass protests ignited in October 2019.
The protests, known as Tishreen, began in the capital, Baghdad, and spread to several cities in central and southern parts of the country. Led largely by young people with no political affiliation, demonstrators demanded jobs, basic services, an end to corruption and to the quota-based political system in place since the 2003 US-led invasion.
They were met with live ammunition and tear gas. The lethal force left around 600 protesters dead and more than 20,000 injured, as well as dozens of security personnel. Activists were also targeted in a wave of assassinations and kidnappings in Baghdad, Basra, Nasiriyah and Najaf, blamed mainly on Iran-backed militias. To date, no senior security official has been convicted in connection with the killings that authorities blamed on a “third party”.
Hadi Al Amiri, leader of the Badr Organisation, made his remarks on Friday at a gathering of his supporters. He praised “the resistance” for standing “bravely in the face of the Tishreen sedition and preserving the state and the political system”.
Lawyer Hazim Mazin Al Badri then filed a complaint against Mr Al Amiri in Wasit province, south of Baghdad, on Wednesday. According to a document published by the court, Mr Al Badri asked prosecutors to open an investigation and to summon Mr Al Amiri to give evidence to support his claims.
Mr Al Badri also requested that the militia leader's remarks were entered into the record and matched against previous investigations into the killing and wounding of protesters, to determine the legal responsibility of the groups Mr Al Amiri referred to as “the resistance”.
Incendiary language
Mr Al Amiri's remarks have quickly gone viral in Iraq, reopening one of the country’s deepest political wounds at a time when the government is under domestic and international pressure to disarm such groups.
For supporters of the Tishreen movement, the language he used was incendiary.
Mr Al Amiri's comments, which described the protests as “sedition” and praised armed factions for confronting them, were read by many as justification of the violence and a warning that it could be repeated.
“Tishreen was not a conspiracy,” Mohammed Ali Hassan, who is from Dhi Qar province, one of the protest epicentres, told The National. “It was Iraqis asking for a better future.”
The unprecedented protests, which subsided under the crackdown and following the outbreak of Covid-19 in April 2020, posed a serious risk to the political elite. They succeeded in paralysing daily life and forced the government to resign. Political parties introduced reforms such as a new election law that allowed independent politicians to enter parliament.
“It has been crystal clear to us who was the 'third party' and we know their faces,” an activist said, asking to remain anonymous for his safety. “Today, these criminals are coming out in public to brag the killing, defying the authorities,” he added.
The backlash comes as Prime Minister Ali Al Zaidi faces renewed pressure to assert state control over the weapons in the hands of non-state actors.
Baghdad is preparing for the scheduled end of the US-led coalition mission on September 30 and has promised Washington that it is committed to placing all arms under state authority.
That pledge directly targets Iran-backed factions who operate inside and outside the Popular Mobilisation Forces, a government-sanctioned umbrella group for paramilitary troops who fought ISIS.
Test for Iraq’s judiciary
Two prominent pro-Tehran armed groups, Asaib Ahl Al Haq and Kataib Imam Ali, alongside cleric Moqtada Al Sadr’s Saraya Al Salam faction, claim they have placed their weapons under state authority. But hardline factions – mainly Kataib Hezbollah and Harakat Hezbollah Al Nujaba – have said they will not disarm until foreign troops leave.
In an interview with a local TV station, senior Shiite politician Nouri Al Maliki said that there would be no disarmament but “organising and containing the weapons, and we are discussing this as well as what kind of weapons will be covered”. He did not elaborate.
The Badr Organisation is one of the largest and oldest components of the Popular Mobilisation Forces. It holds seats in parliament through the Fatah Alliance and maintains political and security influence in several provinces.
The judiciary has shown more willingness to act in militia-related cases. On Thursday, the Karkh Criminal Court in Baghdad sentenced three men to 15 years in prison on terrorism charges for firing Katyusha rockets on a military base hosting French troops north of the capital. It did not say which armed group they are affiliated with.
In August, the Central Criminal Court in Baghdad sentenced two men to 15 years in jail for rocket attacks on the Green Zone, including the US Embassy, and sentenced a militia member for the kidnapping of US journalist Shelly Kittleson.
However, cases related to Tishreen have seen little progress, fuelling public frustration.
The complaint against Mr Al Amiri will be a further test. Prosecutors in Wasit must now decide whether there are sufficient grounds to summon a senior political leader whose bloc is part of the ruling coalition. The case sits at the intersection of two unresolved issues in post-2019 Iraq: accountability for Tishreen, and the state’s monopoly on arms.
For protesters' families, the lack of trials has meant six years without answers. For the government, disarmament is not just a security issue but a political one, because the most powerful armed groups are also political parties with seats in parliament.
