Former Iraqi parliamentarian, supporter of peace with Israel, faces prison, execution – If they succeed to silence a former parliament member with “thousands of people” behind him, “no one will be able to speak for peace,” says Mithal al-Alusi. | JNS.org

(December 12, 2022 / JNS) Former Iraqi parliamentarian Mithal al-Alusi, a longtime supporter of peace with Israel and a recipient of the American Jewish Committee’s (AJC) Moral Courage Award, was sentenced last week by an Iraqi federal court to seven years’ imprisonment for “insulting the judiciary.”
Article 226 of Iraq’s penal code, which dates back to Saddam Hussein’s rule, stipulates that anyone who openly “insults” the Iraqi government or its institutions, including the armed forces or courts, can be prosecuted and imprisoned for up to seven years.