Video footage by Rudaw shows Mohammad Younis' car after being fired upon resulting in his death
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi claims that a number of policemen from Sulaimani murdered a high ranking official from the state-run North Gas Company (NGC) in Kirkuk earlier this month. The Iraqi government has demanded the perpetrators be handed over to Baghdad.
However, a top police official in Sulaimani dismissed Abadi’s claim, calling his comments “untrue”.
In a press conference in Baghdad on Tuesday, al-Abadi revealed that “last week an official with the North Gas Company was murdered. We immediately asked for an investigation into the incident. Thanks be to God, the investigations were successful and it turned out that the crime had been committed by some policemen associated with Sulaimani city.”
Abadi said they had asked for the handover of what he described as “criminals” as evidence collected regarding the incident proved they were guilty of the crime.
Rejecting Abadi’s claims, Brig. Nawzad Ali, manager of Sulaimani Province Police told Rudaw that “these words from Abadi are untrue.”
Ali went on to deride Abadi’s comments explaining that “general manager of the Kurdistan Region Police and Kirkuk province and its judiciary have to be aware if we go to Kirkuk. Therefore, if our police had gone to Kirkuk, these parties should have been aware of that.”
Mohammed Younis Salih deputy head of the NGC and a company's employee were killed earlier this month by unidentified gunmen in the city of Kirkuk.
Shortly afterwards, al-Abadi and Kirkuk administration formed two separate committees to follow up on the incident.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the murder.
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