Iraq's Judiciary denies surveillance attempt on Supreme Judicial Council head

Shafaq News/ On Thursday, the media center of Iraq's Supreme Judicial Council issued a clarification, denying reports of eavesdropping attempts on Faiq Zaidan, the head of the council.

In a statement, the media center asserted that the claims circulating in the media and on social networks about surveillance attempts on Zaidan are untrue.

The clarification follows a report by The New Region on Wednesday, which claimed that Zaidan was among the targets of a surveillance network, seven members of which have been arrested and are currently under investigation.

"Faiq Zidan, head of the Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council, and a number of senior leaders of the ruling Shiite Coordination Framework were among the targets of the wiretapping network uncovered inside the Iraqi prime minister's office last week," security sources familiar with the ongoing investigation told The New Region.

According to the report, the intelligence the arrested included employees in Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani's office and officers in the Iraqi intelligence service.

"The most prominent detainee announced so far is Mohammed Juhi, the deputy director general of personnel affairs in Sudani's office." the report said.

Initial investigations, personally supervised by Judge Ali Jafat and closely monitored by Zidan, have uncovered the involvement of a highly influential figure with significant authority within Prime Minister Sudani's office.

The New Region withheld the name of the suspect for security and legal reasons, however, the "person is suspected of forming this network and managing it from inside the government palace where Sudani carries out his daily work, in central Baghdad," three security officials familiar with the investigation's results told The New Region.

The investigations further revealed that the network began its operations at the end of last year, targeting a wide range of high-ranking political and security leaders, judges, MPs, and other prominent figures through eavesdropping.