BAGHDAD (Reuters) -Former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki remains a potent force in Iraqi politics despite long-standing accusations that he fuelled sectarian strife and failed to stop Islamic State from seizing large areas of the country a decade ago.
As leader of the influential State of Law, a Shi'ite Muslim coalition, he is seen as having enough clout to decide who will become Iraq's next prime minister after a parliamentary election on November 11.
Maliki, in his mid-70s, was pressured to step
down in 2014 by an unusually broad array of critics -- the U.S., Iran, Sunni leaders and Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric -- after Islamic State's rapid territorial gains in 2014.
His divisive years as premier were blamed by many Iraqis for fostering sectarian strife between majority Shi'ites and minority Sunnis, while chronic problems like joblessness, poor public services and graft were left to fester.
MALIKI SIGNED SADDAM'S EXECUTION ORDER
Yet despite the criticism, Maliki -- a shrewd political operator -- staged a comeback in the years that followed, quietly building influence through ties to armed militias, the security services and the judiciary, analysts say.
His political roots stretch back decades, shaped by opposition to Saddam Hussein’s authoritarian rule and a long exile that forged his ideological convictions.
Sentenced to death under Saddam for his role in the outlawed Shi'ite Islamic Dawa Party, Maliki spent nearly 25 years in exile, mostly in Syria and Iran, agitating for the dictator’s downfall.
Like many exiles, he returned to Iraq after Saddam’s fall — the end of a Sunni-led regime that had long oppressed Shi'ites and Kurds.
Maliki signed Saddam's execution order in red ink, paving the way for masked gunmen to place a noose around his neck and pull a lever that quickly ended his life.
Maliki, a friend of Shi'ite power Iran, had fulfilled his life-long goal of wresting power from the country’s Sunnis, but his drive to entrench Shi’ite dominance proved his downfall.
He was blamed by Sunni leaders for not doing enough to crack down on Shi’ite militias and focusing instead on asserting authority over restless Sunni provinces such as Anbar in western Iraq.
Maliki, who served as premier from 2006-2014, denied that he has a sectarian outlook.
"I am not fighting in Anbar because they are Sunnis, as I have also fought Shi’ite militias. Al Qaeda and militias are one - they both kill people and blow them up. Both rely on perverts and deviants," Maliki told Reuters in 2014.
MALIKI'S POLICIES HELPED ALIENATE SUNNIS, CRITICS SAY
His term in office was marred by sectarian bloodshed and an anti-American and anti-government insurgency, and accusations that he marginalized Sunnis, one factor in the rise of Sunni Islamic State.
To detractors, the dour Maliki threw down the gauntlet with stunning speed in 2011 when his Shi’ite-led government demanded the arrest of a Sunni Muslim vice president -- seemingly moments after the departure of U.S. troops in December of that year.
The move called into question Maliki’s commitment to any sort of democracy. The man who plotted from exile against Saddam for years now drew comparisons with his former enemy.
Critics say Maliki's sectarian policies drove Sunnis into the arms of Islamic State.
Maliki left office reluctantly in 2014 after security forces crumbled and fled in the face of a lightning advance by Islamic State, which declared a medieval-style caliphate.
In 2015, an Iraqi parliamentary panel called for Maliki and dozens of other top officials to stand trial over the fall of the northern city of Mosul to Islamic State.
MALIKI HAILS FROM POLITICALLY ENGAGED SOUTHERN IRAQI FAMILY
A little-known politician in Iraq before the U.S.-led invasion, Maliki was a compromise pick to lead a wobbly coalition government in 2006.
Initially seen as a Shi'ite Islamist, Maliki's initial willingness to put aside sectarianism and quell violence was called into question in a leaked U.S. government memo.
"Despite Maliki's reassuring words, repeated reports from our commanders on the ground contributed to our concerns about Maliki's government," National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley wrote to President George W. Bush in the memo.
He went on to list problems including non-delivery of services to Sunni areas and the removal of Iraq's most effective commanders on a sectarian basis.
Maliki was born in 1950 in Janaja, a southern village among date groves on the Euphrates, into a politically engaged family - his grandfather wrote poetry inciting rebellion against Iraq’s British occupiers and his father was a fervent Arab nationalist.
Maliki was briefly arrested in 1979 and then fled, narrowly escaping Saddam’s police. His family’s land was seized and dozens of his relatives were killed over the next decade. He did not see his home village again until after the 2003 invasion.
He became deputy head of the committee that purged former officials in Saddam's widely feared Baath Party.
(Writing by Michael Georgy, Editing by William Maclean)
