Iraqi authorities issue arrest warrant for former Nineveh governor
The Iraqi Joint Operations Command on Saturday revealed they had orders to arrest the former governor of Nineveh Province.
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – The Iraqi Joint Operations Command on Saturday revealed they had orders to arrest the former governor of Nineveh Province.
Brigadier-general Yahya Rasool, the spokesperson of the Iraqi Joint Operations Command, explained they received orders to arrest Atheel al-Nujaifi, the former governor of Nineveh Province.
“We have orders to arrest [Nujaifi] if he is seen in eastern Mosul, or anywhere in Mosul, and hand him over to the judicial authorities,” Rasool added.
Nujaifi is the commander of the Iraqi Hashd al-Watani forces trained by Turkish troops at the Bashiq military base, northern Mosul, the city center of Nineveh province.
On October 2016, the Iraqi court issued an arrest warrant against the former Nineveh governor for “collaborating with a foreign country.”
In an interview with Kurdistan24, Zuhair al-Jibouri, the spokesperson of the Hashd al-Watani, said the army personnel had been informed to arrest Nujaifi under political pressures.
“It is a normal thing for the court to inform the security to arrest a suspect, but it is not the task of the Iraqi army commander to order the arrest of [Nujaifi],” Jibouri said.
“The issuance of the arrest warrant is old, but it was renewed due to political pressures,” he continued.
“It has not been issued from the judiciary but from a military side, while there is no evidence proving [Nujaifi] is guilty,” Jibouri added.
Additionally, Nujaifi on Saturday stated Hashd al-Watani forces had been deployed in 33 neighbors of the liberated areas in eastern Mosul.
Nujaifi became Nineveh governor in April 2005 and was sacked by a majority vote of the Iraqi MPs in May 2015.
Editing by Karzan Sulaivany