Alwaght- An Iraqi court issued arrest warrants on Wednesday for the chairman of its Kurdish region’s referendum commission and two aides for organizing an unconstitutional referendum to secede.
A spokesman for Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council said the warrants for Hendreen Mohammed and his aides were issued by a Baghdad court for “violating a valid (Iraqi) court ruling which considered the referendum invalid”.
A justice ministry official in the Kurdistan Regional government dismissed the Baghdad court decision as “politically motivated” and said the KRG’s own judiciary was independent from Baghdad and did not recognize its legal rulings.
It was not known how Baghdad could carry out the arrest warrants as forces of the central government have no powers in KRG territory.
The Iraqi central government has taken punitive measures over the independence vote, imposing sanctions on Kurdish banks and banning international flights into the Kurdish region.
The Iraqi government denounced the referendum as unconstitutional, and Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi demanded Kurdish authorities "cancel" the referendum and its results.
The United Nations has offered to help "solve the problem" between the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Regional Government.
On September 25, the Kurdistan Regional Government held the non-binding referendum on secession from Iraq in defiance of stiff opposition from the central government in Baghdad and much of the international community.
Political observers have warned that KRG’s referendum scenario is in line with US and Israel’s policy of dividing the regional Muslim states.
