Shafaq News – Baghdad

Saud al-Saadi, head of the parliamentary Huqooq (Rights) Bloc, the political wing of Kataib Hezbollah, filed a complaint to bar Khamis al-Khanjar, leader of the Al-Siyada (Sovereignty) Alliance, from contesting the upcoming Iraqi parliamentary elections.

Al-Khanjar sparked controversy after a widely shared mosque sermon in which he vowed to defend Iraq’s Sunni community from being “left to the mob.”

In a statement, Al-Saadi accused al-Khanjar of “deliberately insulting the Iraqi people by using the term ‘ghoghayiyeen’ (mob-like),” a phrase associated with the former regime’s description of the 1991 popular uprising.

The statement argued that “such rhetoric offends the majority of Iraqis and cannot be part of Iraq’s political pluralism,” urging the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC)’s Board of Commissioners to take legal action and exclude al-Khanjar from the elections.

An official document submitted with the complaint also alleged that al-Khanjar had used a mosque in Baghdad for campaign purposes—an act that, under Iraqi law, is punishable as an electoral violation.

Al-Khanjar is a wealthy businessman and a prominent Sunni politician. His bloc won around 60 seats in the 2021 parliamentary elections before internal splits reduced its share, with former Speaker Mohammed al-Halboosi controlling close to half in a separate bloc.

The official has faced multiple controversies over the years, including US sanctions in 2019 on corruption allegations and renewed judicial scrutiny in 2025 following the leak of an audio recording.