No official announcement of the verdict was made by the court, but Rudaw correspondent Ayub Nasri was in the courtroom when a death sentence on the count of death by strangulation was handed down to the defendant.
The hearing began at 10:20am with an eyewitness who testified to having seen the young girl’s body after the murder, Nasri told Rudaw English.
When the accused was invited up onto the stand, he claimed he committed the murder while drunk, unaware of the extent his actions.
The judge slammed his justification, responding that the remote location of the murder suggested that some pre-planning had been involved.
Dlin had gone out with her younger brother and a cousin to visit relatives and neighbors during the Ramadan Eid holiday, according to her father, Walid Ahmed. On their way home, at around 5pm, her brother and cousin became preoccupied with a bird they had found near Medya school. Soon after, the two boys realized that Dlin had disappeared.
Dlin’s family and police searched for three days before locating the girl’s body on June 8 in an orchard in Duhok. The suspect on trial today was arrested, and soon after confessed to the crime.
Duhok police has said he was an acquaintance of the family, and that Dlin had met him multiple times with her father. According to Major General Tariq Ahmed, director of the Duhok police, the girl began screaming when the perpetrator attempted to rape her. The killer then used two tree branches to stab the girl in the neck.
Police said that a doctor from the forensic department confirmed that Dlin had been killed by an object that “wasn’t too sharp, like a tree”. The forensics department of Duhok has yet to release its report.
Also questioned by the court - though not on trial today - was Dlin’s brother, who had previously been arrested on the grounds of concealing information about Dlin’s murder from her family.
The accused’s court-appointed lawyer said little until the end of the hearing, when he called on the judge to exact justice.
Spectators were ordered to leave the room for ten minutes to allow for deliberation to take place. Upon their return just before midday, a death sentence was handed down, Nasri told Rudaw English.
Dlin’s parents, who testified in the case, were solemn throughout, showing no reaction when the judge read out the sentence, he added.
“I hope this verdict is implemented as soon as possible...the verdict comforted us,” Dlin’s father told Rudaw outside the courtroom after the verdict had been handed down.
The defendant, a Mosul native who moved to Duhok 15 years ago, was previously charged with the attempted murder of his own sister in 2004. He was subsequently sentenced to five years in prison, Nasri said.
The verdict will be sent to the appellate court in Erbil in 10 days, and the accused has 30 days to appeal the decision.
Whether the convicted will actually face execution if the verdict and sentence is sustained is uncertain. While many death sentences have been handed down by the Kurdistan Region, it generally avoids implementing them.
It is the Kurdistan Region's president who has full jurisdiction over whether or not a death sentence is carried out.
