Saturday, March 17, 2007
Al-Sadr accused of murdering Shia cleric
Security, Politics
(Azzaman) The widow of the slain Shiite Cleric Sayyed Abdul Majeed al-Khoei accused the firebrand cleric Moqtada al-Sadr of ordering the murder of her husband. “They brought my husband who was wounded and bleeding and in chains at the doorstep of Moqtada for negotiations. “When they (the assailants) asked Moqtada what they should do with him, he said: ‘I do not know him. Do to him what you want,” she said.
Khoei was murdered only days after returning to Iraq from exile in London. He was hacked to death by a mob at the shrine of Imam Ali in Najaf. Khoei came from a distinguished family of Shiite Muslim clergy who promoted dialogue among Iraq’s various faiths.
Khoei’s widow said she had witnesses hearing a Sadr aide shouting: “Kill him.” Sadr is a suspect along with two dozen people in the murder. The case was put before an Iraqi court who issued sentences but the court rulings are said to have been shelved to avoid further violence.
Khoei who was brought up in Najaf was reported to have a plan to rebuild the city and eyewitnesses quoted him as telling his killers: “I have come to bring your disparate factions together. I love you and want to unite you. Why do you want to kill me?” His wife said the last phrase Khoei uttered was: “Those whom I loved killed me.”
She said she and her family were adamant to pursue the court case until the killers were brought to justice. “The Iraqi government and U.S. troops would like to overlook the case and have been postponing it indefinitely, saying that Iraq’s current condition do not warrant a trial,” she said.
Khoei was murdered only days after returning to Iraq from exile in London. He was hacked to death by a mob at the shrine of Imam Ali in Najaf. Khoei came from a distinguished family of Shiite Muslim clergy who promoted dialogue among Iraq’s various faiths.
Khoei’s widow said she had witnesses hearing a Sadr aide shouting: “Kill him.” Sadr is a suspect along with two dozen people in the murder. The case was put before an Iraqi court who issued sentences but the court rulings are said to have been shelved to avoid further violence.
Khoei who was brought up in Najaf was reported to have a plan to rebuild the city and eyewitnesses quoted him as telling his killers: “I have come to bring your disparate factions together. I love you and want to unite you. Why do you want to kill me?” His wife said the last phrase Khoei uttered was: “Those whom I loved killed me.”
She said she and her family were adamant to pursue the court case until the killers were brought to justice. “The Iraqi government and U.S. troops would like to overlook the case and have been postponing it indefinitely, saying that Iraq’s current condition do not warrant a trial,” she said.
Labels: Moqtada Al-Sadr, Najaf, Shiite Cleric Sayyed Abdul Majeed al-Khoei
