Iraq
Undated picture of Iraq's Supreme Judicial Council headquarters in Baghdad. Photo: Supreme Judicial Council
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council on Tuesday refuted claims that a southern Iraq court had sentenced a Syrian national to death for supporting the current Syrian leadership, clarifying that he was charged with terrorism-related offenses, including glorifying Islamic State (ISIS) leaders and inciting attacks against Iraqi forces.
In a statement, the Council said, “Some social media pages published a picture of a court ruling issued by the Najaf Criminal Court, which included a death sentence against a Syrian national, claiming he was arrested for ‘publishing a video glorifying the current Syrian [interim] President [Ahmed al-Sharaa] and possessing materials related to the Free Syrian Army on his phone.’”
The Council clarified that “this information is incorrect,” adding that the ruling against the defendant was “for the crime of confessing to the glorification of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,” the leader of ISIS’s so-called Caliphate, who was killed in a US raid in northwestern Syria in October 2019.
The individual was also indicted for “praising and encouraging the killing of members of the Iraqi Army and the Popular Mobilization Forces [PMF] in the al-Tarmiyah area [northern Baghdad] by publishing related videos on his personal social media page,” the Council said.
He had also “called on people to join the terrorist [ISIS] entity” and “posted videos of himself burning a portrait of Imam Ali [bin Abi Talib (599–661 CE)],” the first Imam for Shiite Muslims and fourth Caliph in Islam, “with the aim of provoking chaos and sectarian tension.”
The Council emphasized that “this ruling is not final and will be reviewed by the Federal Court of Cassation once the case file is received, as it is subject to automatic appeal (cassation).”
The clarification comes amid media reports alleging that the Najaf Court had sentenced 22-year-old Syrian national Mohammed Hassan, from Syria’s central-western Homs province, to death following his arrest on charges related to a Facebook post showing support to Sharaa.
The reports further claimed that Hassan was accused of possessing videos depicting members of the now-dissolved Free Syrian Army (FSA) capturing fighters from the Iraqi Shiite armed group Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, a powerful faction within the PMF.
A document purportedly issued by the Najaf Court - reportedly sentencing Hassan to “death by hanging” - has been widely circulated among Syrian social media users. However, Rudaw English has not been able to independently verify the authenticity of the document.
For its part, the Syrian foreign ministry stated it was following up on Hassan’s case through official channels.
Mohammad al-Ahmad, director of the Arab Affairs Department at the ministry, said in a Tuesday post on X that, “Since the publication of the news and upon instruction from the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates [Assad al-Shaibani] the case [of Mohammed Hassan] is being followed up with the Iraqi government through official channels until the authenticity of the published document is verified and further action is taken accordingly.”
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