Iraq launches probe into leaked recordings attributed to ex-PM

The Iraqi judiciary yesterday launched a probe into leaked voice recordings reportedly attributed to former Prime Minister Nouri Al-Malik in which he is said to have sharply criticised the head of the Sadrist movement, Muqtada Al-Sadr, Anadolu reported.

According to the news wire, the Information Centre of the Supreme Judicial Council had received a request from the Public Prosecution to take legal measures.

In the purported recordings, Al-Maliki is heard threatening violence against Shia religious leader Al-Sadr, as well as the President of Kurdistan Region, Masoud Barzani.

He is also heard in the recordings describing the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), a Shia militia movement, as “cowards.”

This came days after Iraqi journalist Ali Fadhel, who lives in the United States, revealed the recordings of “an hour-long meeting between Maliki and others.”

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Fadhel did not name the others or disclose how he obtained the recordings.

In one of the clips, Al-Maliki is heard discussing partnering up with an armed Shia faction to confront the Sadrist movement.

Following news of the leaks, Al-Sadr demanded that Al-Maliki turn himself over to the judiciary and quit political life. For his part, Al-Maliki dismissed the recordings as fakes.