Life Imprisonment for Criminal Who Raped and Discarded a Girl in Iraq

The Directorate of Crime Control in Baghdad announced a life sentence for a criminal who raped a 13-year-old girl, assaulted her, and threw her into a landfill, although she survived. Iraqi law includes life imprisonment or a fixed-term sentence as a penalty for the rape of a girl or boy under the age of eighteen. Rape is considered a felony under Iraqi law, and the circumstances are aggravated if the victim is under eighteen years old, if the act leads to the death of the victim, or if the victim was a virgin, in which case the court must award an appropriate compensation according to Article 393 of the Penal Code. In February 2020, Iraqis were shocked by the horrific details of a crime that victimized an 8-year-old girl named Fatima from the city of Nasiriyah in the south of the country, who was raped before dying while on her way home after taking a school exam.