BAGHDAD (Al Jazeera/Xinhua) – Supporters of the Iraqi populist leader Muqtada al-Sadr have rallied in front of the country’s Supreme Judicial Council, expanding a sit-in that initially began in front of the parliament building, and escalating their calls for parliament to be dissolved.
The locations, both in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, a legacy of Iraq’s American occupation where government buildings and embassies are found, are now at the center of a political storm in the country.
“These supporters came from the area in front of the parliament,” said Al Jazeera’s Mahmoud Abdelwahed, reporting from outside the Supreme Judicial Council on Tuesday. “They say that they are requesting that the Judicial Council dissolves the parliament, and obliges concerned authorities to hold early elections as a way to get out of the current political impasse.”
In response, the Supreme Judicial Council, along with the Federal Supreme Court, said that they had received threats, and had suspended court sessions.
Al-Sadr warned last Wednesday that he was giving the judiciary a week to dissolve parliament, but the Supreme Judicial Council has stated that it does not have the authority to do so.
Supporters of the leader, who has been a growing force in Iraqi politics over the last decade, emerged as the biggest party in parliament after elections in October.
However, they were unable to form a government, and al-Sadr ordered his parliamentary bloc to resign from their seats en-masse in June, which they promptly did.
Al-Sadr’s supporters have taken to the streets ever since and stormed parliament in July.
In return, supporters of al-Sadr’s rivals, the Coordination Framework Alliance (CFA), have held protests in August near the Green Zone, raising fears of a clash between the two groups.
The unrest at Iraq’s judiciary forced the country’s caretaker Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi to return to the country from a regional summit in Egypt.
Al-Kadhimi, also commander-in-chief of the Iraqi forces, returned to Baghdad to directly supervise the security forces protecting judicial institutions, according to a statement issued by his media office.
“Disrupting the work of the judicial institution exposes the country to real risks,” he warned, stressing “the need to respect state institutions.”
Al-Kadhimi also called for an immediate meeting of political leaders to activate a national dialogue to defuse the crisis.