BAGHDAD: Populist cleric Moqtada Sadr’s camp on Friday refiled a petition for Iraq’s judiciary to suspend parliament to clear the way for fresh elections amid a months-long political deadlock.
A source within the judiciary said it would give its response on Tuesday to the second such motion within a month submitted by the Sadrists.
At weekly Friday prayers near parliament attended by thousands of Sadr supporters, an aide to the cleric urged the justice system to pay heed to his calls.
“I will give you some advice,” Mohaned al Mussawi, a Sadr loyalist, said in a sermon on Friday. “We expect the judiciary to confirm the (people’s) rights and give hope to the people”.
“We will not abandon our rights,” he added.
The judiciary already said last Sunday that it lacks the authority to dissolve parliament as demanded by Sadr, who is engaged in a standoff with political rivals.
Followers of Sadr, in defiance of the rival Coordination Framework, have for weeks been staging a sit-in outside Iraq’s parliament, after initially storming the legislature’s interior.
On Tuesday, the Sadrists also pitched tents outside the gates of the judicial body’s headquarters in Baghdad for several hours. – AFP
