Abdul Majid al-Khoei
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Abdul Majid al-Khoei (Arabic: عبد المجيد الخوئي) (died 2003) was a Shia cleric and the son of Ayatollah Al-Udhma Sayyid Abul Qasim al-Khoei. Majid was born in Najaf. During the Shia uprising of 1991 he acted as a force of moderation attempting to minimize revenge killings. When the uprising was crushed he was forced to leave Iraq. His father was to die a year later, still under house arrest in Iraq.
In exile in London he worked for the al-Khoei Foundation a charitable foundation set up by his father, becoming its head in 1994 when his brother was assassinated. He was also an outspoken critic of Saddam Hussein's rule: "The regime's criminal acts, beginning in 1968, have been never-ending. Executions, the closing of schools, mosques and shrines sacred to Shia worshipers; the burning of old religious scriptures; looting the sacred sites of gifts left by presidents and kings."
He returned to Iraq in April 2003 after the fall of Saddam despite being warned of the dangers. Though assigned protection, the protective unit could not follow him into the shrine of Imam Ali in Najaf on April 12, 2003. Here he was attacked and hacked to death.
Moqtada al-Sadr was suspected by U.S. and Iraqi authorities of ordering the assassination. According to witnesses, at the mosque they were confronted by an angry mob, some of whom are reported to have shouted "Raifee is back" and others "Long live al-Sadr". The mob killed Raifee with bayonets and knives; al-Khoei, who was critically injured by this time, was trasported to Moqtada, on whose order he was fatally stabbed to death.
Al-Sadr claims the murderers were not his followers and that he in fact sent men to save al-Khoei from the murderers, but he seemed unconcerned over the death; additionally witnesses say that members of the mob claimed to be there on al-Sadr's orders, and that he had instructed them not to kill al-Khoei inside the mosque. Al-Khoei's close followers did not blame al-Sadr for the murder, but instead publicly blamed former Baath party members who also hated al-Khoei. On April 5, 2004, a warrant was issued for Sadr's arrest in connection with this killing.
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