94 Defendants in Gen. Soleimani Assassination Case Are Americans: Iranian Official
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A senior Iranian human rights official said 94 Americans have been charged in the assassination of late Iranian commander Lt. General Qassem Soleimani, who was martyred in Iraq in January 2020.
Kazem Gharibabadi, head of Iran’s Human Rights Headquarters and Deputy Chief of the Judiciary, made the remarks while elaborating on the latest results of an investigation into the assassination.
“Currently, the indictment focuses on the American defendants. This case now has 94 criminals from America. All the necessary documents have been collected by the judicial authorities and at least three complete volumes about these 94 defendants are prepared,” Gharibabadi said.
He added that former US president Donald Trump, former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, and former commander of the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) General Kenneth F. McKenzie are the main culprits in this case, Press TV reported.
Lt. General Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), and his Iraqi trenchmate Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), were martyred along with their companions in a US drone strike on January 3, 2020.
Trump directly authorized the strike, which was carried out near Baghdad International Airport.
“We have also sent letters rogatory to seven other countries, as not all of the accused are Americans, and they (Americans) had accomplices from other countries, for example from some regional countries and two European countries, Germany and the UK,” the Iranian official said.
He noted that those countries have so far refrained from responding to the judicial requests that Iran had sent to them through diplomatic channels.
Gharibabadi also hailed the “very good” cooperation of Iraq’s judiciary with Iran and called for accelerating the investigation process.
He noted that Iran has also provided Iraq’s judicial system with evidence regarding the role of 17 Iraqi people in the case.
Iran and Iraq have set up a joint judicial committee last year to probe into the case, which has held three sessions in Tehran and Baghdad and the fourth round is also to be held next week, he said.
