The Iraqi judiciary decided Wednesday to prosecute the Kurdish officials responsible for organizing the independence referendum on September 25. Supreme Judicial Council spokesman Abdel Sattar Bayraqdar said the judiciary ordered the arrest of the chairman of the votes organizing commission, Hendren Mohammed, and its members. The Council acted on a request from the National Security Council headed by Iraqs Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, added Bayraqdar. Mohammed was quick to denounce the judiciary’s order, considering it “a political decision which has no legal or constitutional basis.” The Kurdistan elections commission “functions in line with the province’s laws under orders from its chairmanship and the recommendation of Kurdistans parliament which are considered official institutions by the Iraqi Constitution,” Mohammed told Asharq Al-Awsat. The judicial order came as Kurdistans Security Council on Wednesday warned of attacks by Iraqi forces on the territory. The council said it had been receiving "dangerous messages" that Iraqi forces - including the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), and the militarized federal police - were preparing for "major attacks" on Kurdistan from areas south of Kirkuk and northern Mosul. But Iraqi government sources denied that Baghdad had any intention of launching a military operation in Kurdistan, describing the accusations as “baseless rumors.” Baghdad had condemned the referendum in Iraqi Kurdistan as unconstitutional, and the countrys Supreme Court in September ordered that it be suspended. The Iraqi federal government and Iraqi Kurdistan have been at loggerheads over the vote, in which an overwhelming majority of 92 per cent supported independence. Afterwards, Baghdad imposed a ban on international flights to and from Kurdistans airports, saying flights would resume if the central government assumed control of the territorys airports.