London, Jan 5, IRNA – Irish Senator Gerard Patrick Craughwell termed assassination of Lieutenant General Qasem Soleimani as state terrorism, saying assassins should be charged before a court of justice.

"I believe murder to be murder. Where there are allegations of war crimes or human rights abuses by any individual or state we have international courts to adjudicate on such cases," Craughwell told IRNA.

"State sponsored assassination is murder and never justified. Every accused is entitled to be tried in a properly constituted court and the evidence assessed by 12 good and true peers," he added.

"When we go outside the rule of law we create a dangerous precedent and become as bad as those we seek to bring to justice," Irish senator noted. 

"Those responsible for this assassination should be charged before such a court and have their actions adjudicated on".

"I support the rule of law in all cases," he said.

Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Qods Force commander Lieutenant General Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes, the acting commander of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) - known as the Hashd al-Shaabi - separately leaving Baghdad airport in two motorcades were targeted in a US terrorist attack on January 3, 2020.

Soon after the assassination, IRGC carried out an operation and targeted the US airbase of Ain al-Assad in Anbar province in western Iraq in response to the US terrorist attack.

Earlier, Iran's Minister of Intelligence Mahmoud Alavi said that Iran provided 1,000 pages documents to refer to International Court over state terrorism against General Soleimani.

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