Today, Sunday, the Iraqi judiciary decided to arrest the director of Ibn Al-Khatib Hospital in the capital, Baghdad, and a number of its employees, against the backdrop of the fire of the hospital in which Corona patients are being treated, and the number of its victims has risen to 82 dead and 120 injured.

The Supreme Judicial Council, which manages the affairs of the judiciary in the country, said in a statement that the Rusafa Investigation Court (in Baghdad) has taken legal measures regarding the Ibn Al-Khatib Hospital fire, which killed dozens of martyrs.

He added that the court decided to arrest the hospital director (his name was not mentioned) and a number of affiliates (employees) until the investigation was completed and the negligent parties were identified.

The statement indicated that the competent judge formed a work team with the Baghdad Crime Control Directorate (affiliated with the Ministry of Interior) to find out the circumstances of the incident.

On Saturday evening, a fire broke out in Ibn Al-Khatib Hospital, designated for Corona patients, in the Diyala Bridge area in the Iraqi capital, as a result of the explosion of an oxygen cylinder.

Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi decided, during his presidency of an extraordinary session of his government, to suspend the Minister of Health Hassan Al-Tamimi from work and refer him for investigation, as well as to suspend both the Governor of Baghdad, Muhammad Jabr, and the Director-General of the Health Department in the Rusafa region from work, and refer them for investigation.

The decisions also stipulated that the investigation into the hospital fire be completed within 5 days, provided that the results are submitted to the Council of Ministers with reference to the possibility of seeking assistance from experts in the fields of security and health.

The Ministry of Health said earlier today that Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi arrested the Director General of the Baghdad Health Department Al-Rusafa, the Director of Ibn Al-Khatib Hospital, the Administrative and Technical Assistant, and the Director of the Engineering and Maintenance Department, and ordered an urgent investigation with them to announce its results to the public.

The Prime Minister also declared the national mourning for the souls of the "martyrs of the accident" for a period of 3 days, considering what happened a crime that "harms the Iraqi national security" and not a mistake. He ordered the formation of a technical team from all relevant ministries to ensure that safety measures are checked in all hospitals, hotels and public places within one week in All over the country.

The Iraqi Parliament announced that tomorrow, Monday, an emergency session will be held, which will be devoted entirely to discussing the causes of the accident and its repercussions, and the Parliament's Health and Environment Committee also called for an urgent meeting to exercise its oversight role with government parties to find out the causes of the accident, and hold accountable the negligent parties and personalities.

Commenting on the Iraqi government's decision to investigate the Minister of Health and other Iraqi officials in the Ibn al-Khatib Hospital fire in Baghdad, Ali al-Bayati, a member of the High Commission for Human Rights in Iraq, said in a previous publication to Al-Jazeera that the investigation should be swift and that accountability should include a wide circle of officials in Iraqi government.

On the other hand, the US National Security Adviser said that Washington had offered to help Iraqi officials after the Ibn al-Khatib hospital fire.

Sadr warns of other incidents

In the same context, the leader of the Sadrist movement, Muqtada al-Sadr, hinted at the possibility that the Ibn al-Khatib hospital fire was intentional, and expressed his fear that "the painful accident will be among the successive incidents for targets that some saboteurs harbor to target the security of Iraq, especially with the approaching elections, especially with the decay Their chances of winning and their popularity diminishing because of their unpatriotic actions. "

Al-Sadr warned against throwing "the people and the innocent into a war in which they are neither a camel nor camel," noting that "the competition in the elections is a competition for their sake and for their security, wealth and dignity, not for their harm and harm."

Incident fire

The Ministry of Interior said that the death toll in the hospital accident rose to 82 dead and 120 injured, and the ministry's spokesman, Khaled Mahanna, added to Al-Jazeera that the fire was caused by the explosion of an oxygen cylinder in one of the floors of the hospital, which was designated for quarantine for Corona virus patients.

Activists on social media broadcast pictures showing the first moments of the fire inside Ibn Al-Khatib Hospital late on Saturday evening.

The pictures show an explosion inside one of the patients 'halls, which was followed by the outbreak of fire inside the corridor and spreading rapidly into the corridors of the hospital, amid attempts by the patients' families to quickly rescue their relatives and flee away.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Interior stated that the Civil Defense reports confirmed the lack of an automatic fire extinguishing system in the hospital, and the same official explained that contact with rescue teams was delayed, which caused the fire to escalate and the number of victims increased. They will be strictly deterred, he says.

Iraqi President Barham Salih said that "the tragedy of Ibn Al-Khatib Hospital came as a result of the accumulation of destruction of state institutions as a result of corruption and mismanagement," calling for accountability for negligence and a comprehensive review of the performance of institutions to ensure that such disasters do not recur.

It is noteworthy that the Iraqi health system is in a state of deterioration as a result of decades of international sanctions, wars and neglect by the authorities, at a time when the country is registering high numbers of people infected with Coronavirus, as Iraq leads the Arab countries affected by the pandemic.