Iraq Denies Issuing Death Sentence Against Syrian Over Praise for Al-Sharaa

Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council on Tuesday denied reports circulated by media outlets and social media claiming that a Syrian citizen had been sentenced to death for posting a video praising Syrian Interim Government Prime Minister Ahmad Al-Sharaa. The council stressed that the reports were “completely baseless,” clarifying that the case is related to separate terrorism charges unrelated to Syrian affairs.

In a statement, the council said, “The circulated information is incorrect,” explaining that the ruling issued against the defendant concerns “the crime of promoting the ISIS terrorist organization, glorifying its leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, and inciting the killing of Iraqi army and Popular Mobilization Forces personnel in the Tarmiyah area through the publication of videos on social media.”

The statement added that the defendant had also “burned a picture of Imam Ali in recorded videos, with the intent of inciting sectarian strife and chaos within society.”

The Supreme Judicial Council confirmed that “the ruling is not final and will be reviewed by the Federal Court of Cassation, as it is subject to automatic appeal.”

In recent hours, social media platforms had widely circulated unverified reports claiming that a young Syrian man named Mohammad Suleiman Ahmad Hassan had been sentenced to death in the city of Najaf, sparking widespread controversy before the official Iraqi denial was issued.