ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Sulaimani’s criminal court on Sunday issued a death sentence in connection with the murder of a police officer over two years earlier. Two other people were handed life sentences.
Police officer Mohammed Latif was shot dead and four other officers of Sulaimani’s Combating Violence against Women directorate were wounded by armed persons in December 2021 while responding to a domestic violence call. Three people were arrested in April 2022 in connection with the case.
“After 11 court sessions into the case of Captain Mohammed, the court has issued its just ruling and the suspect will be executed,” Sarkawt Omar, director general of Sulaimani’s Combating Violence against Women directorate, told Rudaw’s Horvan Rafaat.
Omar stated that the ruling provides the directorate with “moral support” to continue carrying out its duties.
Additionally, the court has also ordered families of the suspects to pay 215 million Iraqi dinars (over $140,000) in compensation to Latif’s family, according to Salah Hassan, spokesperson for the presidency of Sulaimani’s court of cassation.
Kurdistan Region Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani thanked the court for issuing the ruling, as well as the security forces and lawyers that have worked on the case over the past two years.
“We reiterate that no murderer, women killer, or criminal should escape legal punishment in Kurdistan under any pretext,” said the deputy prime minister in a statement on Sunday.
Talabani visited the late officer’s family after the suspects arrest in 2022. He called Latif a “martyr in the path of combating domestic violence,” stressing that punishing criminals is not enough, and that more action should be taken to cases of domestic violence.
Also on Sunday, a Sulaimani court sentenced a man to death for burning his wife alive nearly two years ago, overturning a previous ruling which had sentenced him to life imprisonment.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) launched an app to tackle violence against women in December 2021. It also set up a support hotline for victims of violence in 2018, about seven years after it passed the Combating Domestic Violence Law, criminalizing domestic violence and equipping the directorate to combat violence by investigating it.
The Kurdistan Region suffers from high rates of gender-based violence, including sexual violence, domestic violence, so-called honor violence, child marriages, and female genital mutilation.
At least 30 women were killed the Kurdistan Region in 2023, according to the Region’s Combating Violence against Women Directorate. In 2022, the Region reported its highest femicide rate in years, with at least 44 women killed.
Police officer Mohammed Latif was shot dead and four other officers of Sulaimani’s Combating Violence against Women directorate were wounded by armed persons in December 2021 while responding to a domestic violence call. Three people were arrested in April 2022 in connection with the case.
“After 11 court sessions into the case of Captain Mohammed, the court has issued its just ruling and the suspect will be executed,” Sarkawt Omar, director general of Sulaimani’s Combating Violence against Women directorate, told Rudaw’s Horvan Rafaat.
Omar stated that the ruling provides the directorate with “moral support” to continue carrying out its duties.
Additionally, the court has also ordered families of the suspects to pay 215 million Iraqi dinars (over $140,000) in compensation to Latif’s family, according to Salah Hassan, spokesperson for the presidency of Sulaimani’s court of cassation.
Kurdistan Region Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani thanked the court for issuing the ruling, as well as the security forces and lawyers that have worked on the case over the past two years.
“We reiterate that no murderer, women killer, or criminal should escape legal punishment in Kurdistan under any pretext,” said the deputy prime minister in a statement on Sunday.
Talabani visited the late officer’s family after the suspects arrest in 2022. He called Latif a “martyr in the path of combating domestic violence,” stressing that punishing criminals is not enough, and that more action should be taken to cases of domestic violence.
Also on Sunday, a Sulaimani court sentenced a man to death for burning his wife alive nearly two years ago, overturning a previous ruling which had sentenced him to life imprisonment.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) launched an app to tackle violence against women in December 2021. It also set up a support hotline for victims of violence in 2018, about seven years after it passed the Combating Domestic Violence Law, criminalizing domestic violence and equipping the directorate to combat violence by investigating it.
The Kurdistan Region suffers from high rates of gender-based violence, including sexual violence, domestic violence, so-called honor violence, child marriages, and female genital mutilation.
At least 30 women were killed the Kurdistan Region in 2023, according to the Region’s Combating Violence against Women Directorate. In 2022, the Region reported its highest femicide rate in years, with at least 44 women killed.
Updated at 6:37 pm, an earlier version of this article was headlined "Suspect in killing Sulaimani police officer sentenced to death"
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