Supporters of the Iraqi Shia religious leader Muqtada al-Sadr have rallied in front of the country’s Supreme Judicial Council, expanding a sit-in that initially began in front of the parliament building, and escalating their calls for parliament to be dissolved.

The locations, both in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, a legacy of Iraq’s American occupation where government buildings and embassies are found, are now at the centre of a political storm in the country.

“These supporters came from the area in front of the parliament,” said Al Jazeera’s Mahmoud Abdelwahed, reporting from outside the Supreme Judicial Council on Tuesday. “They say that they are requesting that the Judicial Council dissolves the parliament, and obliges concerned authorities to hold early elections as a way to get out of the current political impasse.”

In response, the Supreme Judicial Council, along with the Federal Supreme Court, said that they had received threats, and had suspended court sessions.

Al-Sadr warned last Wednesday that he was giving the judiciary a week to dissolve parliament, but the Supreme Judicial Council has stated that it does not have the authority to do so.

Credit: Aljazeera.com