Bodies found in ‘court’ run by al-Sadr followers

IRAQI police discovered at least 10 bodies in a building housing a maverick religious court run by rebel Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s followers yesterday and said they were victims of the court’s summary brand of justice.

Al-Sadr’s followers said those killed were comrades who fell in the three weeks of fighting there.

An Associated Press reporter saw about 10 charred and bloated bodies covered in blankets, including one of an elderly woman.

It was not immediately clear how they died, but they appeared to have been killed by shrapnel, with large gaping wounds.

The stench of the corpses led police, who were deployed today in Najaf’s Old City, to the site, said Brigadier General Amer al-Daami, Najaf’s deputy police chief.

“We found bodies, burnt and rotten,” he said.

Al-Daami said some of the bodies were those of police officers while others were civilians.

Before the fighting began on August 5, authorities accused the militants of taking police hostage in the city and of killing and mutilating some of them.

Al-Sadr’s office in Najaf had set up the court, which ordered arrests and meted out punishments outside of religious and legal authorities.

Local Iraqi officials have in the past demanded it be shut down and all its prisoners freed.

Police said the bodies belonged to the victims of the court. But a court official, who identified himself only as Hashim, said the corpses belonged to militants killed in the recent fighting in the city.

The two-storey courthouse is made up of 15 rooms filled with desks, computers and books.

The bodies were found in an open air area within the courthouse compound.

Half the skull of one of the dead men was missing and another man appeared to have suffered massive wounds to his stomach. One of the bodies was beheaded, although it was unclear how, but none of the others were dismembered.

During the fighting, the militants had set up their own informal health clinics and morgues.

The US military has said it killed hundreds of militants in the fighting, though the militants say their casualty figure was far lower.

The courts have arrested and interrogated hundreds of people on charges including selling alcohol and peddling music deemed immoral.

Punishments included flagellation.

Al-Sadr’s followers have been accused of using the court to settle scores with opponents or to threaten people.