Iraq court issues death sentence to former policeman for killing academic Hisham al-Hashemi

An Iraqi court on Sunday sentenced to death a former policeman convicted of killing prominent academic Hisham al-Hashemi, whose murder in 2020 sparked condemnation in Iraq and abroad.

The sentence against Ahed Hamdawi Oueid for killing Hashemi, an expert on Sunni extremism and a government security adviser, was handed down by a Baghdad criminal court and can be appealed, the judiciary said.