The legal expert, Counselor Salem Hawass, said, “The directive of the Supreme Judicial Council to tighten procedures against perpetrators of crimes of insulting religious symbols and beliefs requires the enactment of the Information Crimes Law within the specific controls that are consistent with freedom of thought and opinion, provided that belief is not prejudiced.
Hawass stated in a statement: “In view of the recent prevalence of the crime of insulting religious symbols and beliefs, its escalation, and the failure to actually deter it on the ground, the Supreme Judicial Council directed the competent courts to intensify judicial procedures against the perpetrators of these crimes, which constitute an explicit violation of the provisions of Article 372 of the Penal Code in force. He called on the House of Representatives to proceed with the legislation of the Information Crimes Law to ensure the good use of social media and not to use them as platforms to stir up strife, destabilize community security, spread the spirit of hatred, and preserve the symbolism and status of religious authorities, especially after the emergence of the phenomenon of uncontrolled religious and media platforms and confusion on the beliefs, religions and rituals of others.”
He stressed, “The text of Article 372 of the Iraqi Penal Code shall be punished with imprisonment for a period not exceeding three years or a fine whoever assaults, by any means of publicity, the belief of a religious sect or humiliates one of its rituals and who deliberately disturbs the performance of a religious sect’s rituals or a religious ceremony or meeting or deliberately preventing or obstructing the establishment of any of that, in addition to the provisions of the Constitution in Articles 2, 10, 14, 15, 17, 41, 42, and 43.
Hawass added: “This text also includes a punishment for whoever destroys, damages, distorts, or desecrates a building intended to hold a religious sect’s rituals, a symbol, or something else that has religious sanctity, and whoever prints or publishes a holy Book for a religious sect if its text is intentionally distorted away from its meaning or if he underestimates a ruling or something of its teachings, and whoever publicly insults a symbol or a person that is a subject of reverence, glorification or respect for a religious sect, and whoever publicly imitates a religious ritual or ceremony with the intention of mocking it.
He referred to the provisions of Article 159 of this law, whoever aims to incite sectarian strife shall be punished with life imprisonment, and Article 198 stipulates a ten-year prison sentence for anyone who incites the crime of sectarian strife and sectarian strife, even if his incitement does not result in the origins of sectarian strife, in addition to Article 204, which its penalty reaches ten years.”/ End
Source: National Iraqi News Agency