BAGHDAD, Iraq - Faiq Zidan, head of the Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council, and a number of senior leaders of the ruling Shiite Coordination Framework were among the targets of the wiretapping network uncovered inside the Iraqi prime minister’s office last week, security sources familiar with the ongoing investigation told The New Region.

The intelligence service has so far arrested seven suspects, including employees in Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani’s office and officers in the Iraqi intelligence service.

The most prominent detainee announced so far is Mohammed Juhi, the deputy director general of personnel affairs in Sudani’s office.

The direct connection of the seven suspects to the prime minister’s office and the Iraqi National Intelligence Service, which Sudani runs, and the technical and security facilities they received to wiretap Zidan and a number of leaders of the ruling Coordination Framework’s inner circle, have raised dozens of questions about the identity of the real person responsible for creating and managing this network.

Initial investigations, personally supervised by Ali Jafat, the judge of intelligence, and regularly followed-up by Zidan, revealed the involvement of a very influential figure with broad powers within Sudani’s office.

The New Region withheld the name of the suspect for security and legal reasons, however the person is suspected of forming this network and managing it from inside the government palace where Sudani carries out his daily work, in central Baghdad, three security officials familiar with the investigation’s results told The New Region.

The investigations also revealed that officers from the technical department of the intelligence service, who specialize in wiretapping and hacking techniques, were brought in to handle the technical aspects of the network’s operation, the sources said.

“Juhi is just one of the tools used, not the head. In fact, Juhi is the one who led the National Security Service to them after he made an electronic mistake,” one of the officials told The New Region.

“He (Juhi) was reached by following a link to one of the pages associated with him personally,” the source said. “Following the link led the National Security personnels directly to his home inside the Green Zone, where he was arrested.”

Investigations also revealed that the network began operating at the end of last year, and that the eavesdropping operations targeted a large number of top-ranking political and security leaders, judges, MPs, and others.

The New Region is yet to confirm how these developments will impact Sudani's work and whether they will affect his relationship with his Shiite partners or not.

A statement from the Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council on Thursday said that Zidan was not a target of wiretapping, denying what security sources aware of the investigation said.

Updated at 9:54 am on August 29, 2024 with statement from the Supreme Judicial Council.