Iraqi judiciary ready to listen: Nineveh governor

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The governor of Nineveh told Rudaw on Wednesday that those who reject the Hamdaniya fire investigation’s results may come forward and lodge complaints if they are in possession of evidence or information regarding the source of the fire.

Iraq’s interior ministry on Sunday stated that the tragic fire at a Hamdaniya banquet hall was “accidental”, noting that it was caused by the contact between a fire source and the highly flammable material of the banquet hall ceiling, but the Syriac Catholic Church rejected the claim.

Minutes following the press conference, the Syriac Catholic Archbishop of Mosul Benedict Younan Hanno slammed the results of the investigation committee saying that the Church rejected them.

“We reject it [the results], we don’t accept it,” said the Archbishop. 

Rivan, the groom whose wedding turned into a tragedy, also contradicted the conclusion by the Iraqi interior ministry that malfunctioning fireworks resulted in the tragedy, calling for an international investigation to determine the reason. 

“It is not true. We demand for an international committee to investigate this, for international organizations to help us,” Rivan told Rudaw English in Hamdaniya. 

Nineveh Governor Najim al-Jabouri on the other hand, told Rudaw that “[The people of Hamdaniya] will be rightful to ask for an international investigation if they find out that our courts have not done anything for them when they approached them with information,” stressing that in his view the Iraqi judiciary, and the courts in the Nineveh province in particular, are “ready to listen.” 

"From now on, courts will open their doors to all those who would like to lodge individual complaints or may have information," said the governor. "Relatives of the victims may from now visit the Hamdaniya court and file complaints, according to information they have with respect to the incident.
 
Over 100 people were killed and hundreds of others were injured during the celebration of a Christian couple's wedding last Tuesday. While most of the injured have been receiving treatment in Nineveh, Erbil, and Duhok hospitals, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani sent three groups of injured to neighboring Turkey for further treatment.

Governor al-Jabouri stressed that the Iraqi government will continue the process of sending victims of the Hamdaniya fire abroad for treatment if their condition requires it.

Yehia Rasool, the military spokesperson for Sudani, said in a post on X (previously Twitter) on Monday that the government had sent a total of 20 victims of the Hamdaniya tragedy abroad for further treatment. Since then, three have succumbed to their wounds and the rest remain in critical conditions.