BAGHDAD (AFP) – 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 Ahmed Hamdawi Oueid for killing Hashemi, an expert on extremism and a government security adviser, was handed down by a Baghdad criminal court and can be appealed, the judiciary said. A well-respected academic and expert on militant groups, Hashemi was shot dead outside his Baghdad home in July 2020 by gunmen on motorcycles.

A year later, state television aired the alleged confession of the mastermind of the assault who was then identified by his full name Ahmed Hamdawi Oueid al-Kenani.