Iraqi court orders arrest of former Mosul chief on ‘espionage’ charges

An Iraqi court yesterday ordered the arrest of former Ninawa provincial governor, Atheel Al-Nujaifi, on espionage charges.

Al-Nujaifi, a Sunni Arab native of Mosul which is the capital of Ninawa, allegedly assisted Turkish troops to establish a military base in Iraq last year, a controversy that has resurfaced as Iraqi and Kurdish forces are locked in an offensive to evict Daesh from its stronghold of Mosul. Al-Nujaifi was the governor of Ninawa province when it fell to Daesh in June 2014, and has consistently blamed former Shia Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki for the city’s downfall. He was stripped of his gubernatorial position by a parliamentary vote in 2015.

The Iraqi Kurdish news outlet Rudaw reported that Abdulsattar Bayraqdar, a spokesman for the Iraqi judiciary, said yesterday that three Iraqi MPs had filed a complaint against Al-Nujaifi in December last year, coinciding with the Turkish establishment of a military base in Bashiqa, northern Iraq.

The Iraqi lawmakers claimed that Al-Nujaifi had “sought the help of a foreign state whereby he facilitated Turkish troops and empowered them to open a military base in the Zilkan military camp north of the province.”

Zilkan is six kilometres north of Bashiqa proper, although the Turkish military presence in Iraq has become synonymous with the latter name. Turkey says it has been training Sunni Arabs, Turkmen and Kurdish units in Bashiqa. It is also providing support to the Ninawa Guard militia, formerly known as the National Mobilisation, that is under Al-Nujaifi’s command.

Al-Nujaifi released a statement over Facebook stating that the Mosul offensive was his priority at this time, and that his forces would be fighting alongside the Iraqi army for Mosul.

He downplayed the accusation, saying he would leave the issue to those interested in “trivial matters” until “the dust of war” has settled and the matter can be dealt with “legally and easier than [his rivals] anticipate.”