Abdul-Wahid Shannan ar-Ribat

Abdul-Wahid Shannan ar-Ribat
Ribat in the late 1980s, as Commander of the Iraqi Army's 6th Corps.
Native name	عبد الواحد شنان آل رباط
Born	Samawah, Iraq
Allegiance	Ba'athist Iraq
Service/branch	Iraqi Army
Years of service	1964–2003
Rank	General
Commands held	12th Armored division 39th mountaineers division 29th infantry division 11th infantry division baghdad division from the Republican Guards 6th Corps 4th Corps The Chief of staff of the Iraqi army
Battles/wars	Iran–Iraq War

12th Armored division

39th mountaineers division

29th infantry division

11th infantry division

baghdad division from the Republican Guards

6th Corps

4th Corps

Abdul-Wahid Shannan ar-Ribat (Arabic: عبد الواحد شنان آل رباط) is a former Iraqi Army general.

Ribat, a Shiite, is from the city of Samawah in Muthanna province. He served as Chief of Staff of the Iraqi Army during the reign of Saddam Hussein.

He later went on to become the Governor of Nineveh in 1999, in which capacity he served until the 2003 Invasion of Iraq.

On 14 June 2014 an Iraqi government spokesperson claimed Ribat was killed in a government airstrike on Mosul as part of the 2014 Northern Iraq Offensive. Ribat's family however refuted this, and claimed that he was alive and well in the United Arab Emirates, and had no contact with militant groups active in Iraq.

In 2016, he launched a private prosecution of the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, at the time of the invasion of Iraq, as well as the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, and the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith. He alleged that they had committed the crime of aggression by invading Iraq and based his evidence, in part, on the Chilcot Inquiry report. He was represented by Michael Mansfield, QC, a prominent lawyer. His attempt to have the defendants arrested was dismissed by a District Judge at Westminster Magistrates Court in November 2016, but this has been appealed. The current Attorney General has intervened in the case to argue against. In July 2017, the London High Court ruled the prosecution had failed for three reasons: 1) In 2006, the Law Lords had ruled that the crime of aggression is in fact not a crime in England and Wales. 2) The accused had governmental immunity at the time of their actions. 3) Ar-Ribat had not obtained the permission of the sitting UK Attorney General.