UK security firm G4S accused of involvement in Soleimani assassination

A top Tehran prosecutor says more than 2,000 'international documents' could support legal action against the London-based security firm
2 min read
01 January, 2021
G4S has dismissed the accusations as 'completely unfounded' [Getty]
A top Iranian prosecutor has accused British security firm G4S of involvement in the January 2020 assassination of General Qasem Soleimani, Iranian state media reported.

Prosecutor-general Ali Al-Qasi Mehr said G4S "was responsible for securing flights" at Baghdad airport, where Soleimani had travelled to on the day of his death.

"As soon as General Soleimani and his party arrived, elements in the company provided information about them to the terrorists," Mizan Online, the Iranian judiciary's official news portal, quoted the prosecutor as saying.

Al-Qasi Mehr added that more than 2,000 "international documents" could support a legal case against G4S.

The London-based security firm has dismissed the allegations as "completely unfounded speculation", according to an emailed statement.

"G4S wishes to make clear that it had absolutely no involvement in the attack on Qasem Soleimani and Abu-Mahdi al-Muhandis," the company said in an emailed statement.

"In response to recent, completely unfounded speculation, G4S wishes to make clear that it had absolutely no involvement in the attack on Qasem Soleimani and Abu-Mahdi al-Muhandis," a spokesperson for G4S said in a seperate statement.

G4S has has been charged with security operations at Baghdad International Airport since 2010.

The accusations against G4S come as Iran prepares to mark the first anniversary of the death of Soleimani, who was killed in a US drone strike near the Baghdad airport.

Soleimani headed the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which directly answers to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

A veteran of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, he went on to oversee Iran's military operations in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere.

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