Iraqi MPs vote to bring men who failed Mosul to justice
Parliament votes to refer top officials, including ex-PM Nouri al-Maliki, to judiciary over abandoning of Mosul to ISIL.
Iraqi MPs have voted to refer to the judiciary a report holding top officials, including former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, responsible for the fall of the country’s second city, Mosul, the parliamentary speaker has said.
Politician Mohamed al-Karbouli said Monday’s vote in parliament was taken by a show of hands and passed by a majority.
He said the report was now due to go to the public prosecutor and Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who has the right to refer officers for court martial.
Maliki was the most senior and controversial of those named responsible in a parliamentary committee report on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s (ISIL) takeover of Nineveh province capital Mosul in 2014, which was released on Sunday.
The panel’s report, the most drastic step yet taken by Baghdad to provide accountability for the loss of nearly a third of the country’s territory to ISIL fighters, alleges that Maliki had an inaccurate picture of the threat to the northern city because he chose commanders who engaged in corruption and failed to hold them accountable.
The findings also placed responsibility for the fall of the city on Mosul Governor Atheel al-Nujaifi, former acting defence minister Sadoun al-Dulaimi, former army chief General Babakir Zebari and Lieutenant General Mahdi al-Gharrawi, former operational commander of Nineveh province, of which Mosul is the capital.
Others accused include Nineveh police commander Major General Khalid Hamdani, former Deputy Interior Minister Adnan al-Assadi, former army intelligence chief Lieutenant General Hatam al-Magsousi and three other Kurdish members of the Iraqi security forces.
“Parliament voted to refer the file, including facts and evidence and names,” to the judiciary, speaker Salim al-Juburi said in televised remarks on Monday.
“None of the names mentioned in this report were deleted, and all of them will be sent to the judiciary.
“An investigation and follow up and accounting of all those who caused the fall of Mosul will be carried out.”
Former prime minister Maliki held the post for eight years before he was effectivley pushed out last August.
ISIL launched an offensive on June 9 last year, overrunning Mosul the next day and then sweeping through large areas north and west of Baghdad.
Multiple Iraqi divisions collapsed during the initial assault in the north, in some cases abandoning weapons and other equipment which ISIL fighters then used to further their advance.
While various top commanders and political leaders have long been blamed for the Mosul loss, the report is the first time that they have been named officially.