![Leader of State of Law Coalition and former Prime Minister of Iraq, Nouri al-Maliki on September 14, 2020 [Iranian Parliament/Handout/Anadolu Agency]](https://i0.wp.com/d2.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Speaker-of-the-Parliament-of-Iran-Ghalibaf-meets-Nouri-al-Maliki_4.jpg?fit=920%2C613&ssl=1)
The Iraqi judiciary yesterday launched a probe into leaked voice recordings reportedly attributed to former Prime Minister Nouri Al-Malik in which he is said to have sharply criticised the head of the Sadrist movement, Muqtada Al-Sadr, Anadolu reported.
According to the news wire, the Information Centre of the Supreme Judicial Council had received a request from the Public Prosecution to take legal measures.
In the purported recordings, Al-Maliki is heard threatening violence against Shia religious leader Al-Sadr, as well as the President of Kurdistan Region, Masoud Barzani.
He is also heard in the recordings describing the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), a Shia militia movement, as “cowards.”
This came days after Iraqi journalist Ali Fadhel, who lives in the United States, revealed the recordings of “an hour-long meeting between Maliki and others.”
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Fadhel did not name the others or disclose how he obtained the recordings.
In one of the clips, Al-Maliki is heard discussing partnering up with an armed Shia faction to confront the Sadrist movement.
Following news of the leaks, Al-Sadr demanded that Al-Maliki turn himself over to the judiciary and quit political life. For his part, Al-Maliki dismissed the recordings as fakes.