SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Iraq’s judiciary on Wednesday announced the resumption of its works after powerful Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called on his supporters to withdraw from outside its headquarters in Baghdad, INA reported.
The Supreme Judicial Council earlier on Tuesday suspended its work after Sadr supporters camped out near its headquarters to demand that it dissolve parliament, deepening the ongoing political crisis, one of the worst of the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
Sadr in a statement called on his supporters on Tuesday to withdraw from the building outside and to keep only the protest tents and banners outside the building.
“It was decided to resume work normally in all courts as of tomorrow morning, in light of the withdrawal of the demonstrators and the lifting of the siege on the headquarters of the Supreme Judicial Council,” the council in a statement said late on Tuesday.
The populist leader Sadr has also urged the protesters to continue their sit-in outside the parliament.
The judiciary condemned the gathering of protesters outside its headquarters as “unconstitutional behavior”, adding that protesters had sent threats by phone.
Sadr was the biggest winner of the 2021 election but was unable to form a government with Kurdish and Sunni Muslim Arab parties, excluding his Shia rivals.
The deadlock between Sadr and his rivals has left Iraq without a government for a record time in the post-Saddam Hussein era.
