BAGHDAD - (Xinhua) - Iraq 's Supreme Judicial Council announced today (Tuesday) the suspension of all courts, in protest against a sit-in organized by supporters of the prominent Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr, in front of his building in the fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad.

The Supreme Judicial Council said in a statement that it held an online meeting this morning with the Federal Supreme Court, following an open sit-in by Sadrist demonstrators in front of the council to demand the dissolution of the Iraqi parliament by "pressuring the Federal Court to issue a decision in the state order and sending threatening messages over the phone to put pressure on the court."

"The meeting decided to suspend the work of the Supreme Judicial Council and its affiliated courts and the Federal Supreme Court, in protest against these unconstitutional and illegal actions," the statement added.

The Supreme Judicial Council held the government and the political party behind this sit-in, in reference to the Sadrist movement, legal responsibility for the consequences of this behavior.

Hundreds of Sadrist supporters set up tents this morning in front of the Supreme Judicial Council building on the western side of the Green Zone in central Baghdad.

This development comes as al-Sadr's supporters have been organizing, since July 30, an open sit-in around the Iraqi parliament in the Green Zone to demand the dissolution of the parliament, early elections, political reform, the trial of the corrupt, the overthrow of Muhammad Shia al-Sudani, the candidate of the Shiite coordination framework for the next government, and the formation of a national majority government.

On the other hand, supporters of the Shiite coordination framework have been organizing a sit-in at the southern gate of the Green Zone since August 12.

Since the legislative elections were held on the tenth of last October, Iraq has been going through a political crisis that is embodied in the suspension of Parliament sessions after thousands of al-Sadr’s followers stormed his headquarters in the heavily fortified Green Zone, and the failure to elect a new president for the country, and calls against the Sadrist movement and the Shiite coordination framework to demonstrate, and the dispute over shape of the next government.