Khaberni - The Iraqi National Security Agency announced on Monday the implementation of the death sentence by hanging against the convicted Saadoun Sabri Jameel Al-Qaisi, after completing the judicial procedures.
The sentence was executed based on the conviction of Al-Qaisi for committing severe humanitarian crimes during the previous regime era.
The agency mentioned in an official statement that Al-Qaisi was convicted of a series of serious crimes, including the assassination of the prominent religious figure Mohammad Baqir Al-Sadr, one of the most prominent symbols of Islamic thought and the founder of the Islamic Dawa Party, in addition to his sister Alawiya Bint Al-Huda, and several scholars from Beit Al-Hikma, as well as innocent civilians and members of the Islamic Dawa Party.
In his statement, the spokesperson for the National Security Agency, Arshad al-Hakim, said that the execution came after exhausting all stages of litigation, confirming that Al-Qaisi bore legal responsibility for documented crimes classified as serious humanitarian crimes.
Al-Hakim pointed out that this step is part of the transitional justice process, aiming to redress the victims and establish the principle of no impunity, especially for crimes committed during the era of the defunct regime.
The Iraqi National Security Agency announced late January 2025, the arrest of a former high-ranking security official, in connection with his involvement in the execution of Al-Sadr in 1980, during the repressive campaign launched by the regime of the late President Saddam Hussein against his opposition.
Al-Qaisi fled to Syria after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003, using an alias to evade legal prosecution, before returning to Iraq on February 26, 2023, and was later arrested in the city of Erbil in northern Iraq.
During the era of the previous regime, Al-Qaisi held high security positions, including the director of state security and the director of security for the Basra and Najaf provinces.
Mohammed Baqir Al-Sadr was one of the most prominent political opponents of the former Baath party rule, and his anti-regime stance escalated following the revolution in Iran in 1979, which sparked the authorities' fears of a wide Shiite movement in the country.
He was one of the intellectual founders of the Islamic Dawa Party, currently led by Nouri al-Maliki, and his assassination marked a critical juncture in the history of opposition against the former regime.
In 1980, the authorities arrested Al-Sadr and his sister Bint Al-Huda, a prominent religious scholar and activist, before they were executed on April 8 of the same year, while the government at the time refrained from handing over their bodies, fearing that their burial site would become a gathering center for the opposition.
