Iran’s Judiciary Spokesman Gholamhossein Esmayeeli said that his country is cooperating with Iraq and Syria to follow up on the case of former commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Qods Force Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani who was assassinated by the US in Iraq's Baghdad airport over a year ago.
Esmayeeli said on Tuesday that the judiciary, in collaboration with foreign ministry, are pursuing the case of terrorist attack on General Soleimani together with Iraq and Syria.
"One part is related to the Iraqi judiciary, which was followed up during the visit of the Iranian Judiciary Chief (Ebrahim Rayeesi) to Baghdad," he added.
“The second part is related to the case opened in an Iranian court and it needs to be overviewed by the Iranian Supreme National Security Council,” the spokesman noted.
"There is ongoing cooperation between Iraq and Syria to raise the issue in international bodies, although international processes are time-consuming," he further said.
Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani was assassinated in a US drone strike on Baghdad International Airport in Iraq on January 3, 2020.
The airstrike also martyred Deputy Commander of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. The two were martyred in an American airstrike that targeted their vehicle on the road to the airport.
Five Iranian and five Iraqi military men were martyred by the missiles fired by the US drone at Baghdad International Airport.
On January 8, the IRGC Aerospace Force started heavy ballistic missile attacks on US Ein Al-Assad airbase in Southwestern Iraq near the border with Syria and a US operated airbase in Erbil in retaliation for the US assassination of General Soleimani.
Ein Al-Assad is an airbase with a 4km runway at 188m altitude from sea levels, which is the main and the largest US airbase in Iraq. Early reports said the radar systems and missile defense shields in Ein Al-Assad failed to operate and intercept the Iranian missiles. Unofficial reports said the US army's central radar systems at Ein Al-Assad had been jammed by electronic warfare.
The second IRGC reprisal attack targeted a US military base near Erbil airport in Iraqi Kurdistan Region in the second leg of "Martyr Soleimani" reprisal operation.
In relevant remarks in December 2020, Iranian Judiciary Chief Seyed Ebrahim Rayeesi described former US President Donald Trump as the number one culprit in the terrorist attack on Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, stressing that the US president may not escape punishment on the pretext of political immunity.
“Trump is the number one criminal in the assassination of martyr Soleiamni, who has admitted to the crime before the world people and he may by no means be seen immune to punishment for this act,” Rayeesi said.
He referred to the US claims of immunity because of its legal status, and underlined that the US officials could no way escape investigation into this crime and "they should account for their crime of assassinating martyr Soleimani".
Rayeesi said that necessary mechanisms have been established to follow up the case through legal and criminal courts and channels.
He stressed the need for a serious prosecution of the perpetrators of the terror attack, noting that there are enough documents to pursue the case and demand punishment for the masterminds and perpetrators of this heinous crime.
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