Shafaq News – Baghdad

On Thursday, an Iraqi court sentenced political analyst Mohammed Nanaa to three months in prison over a lawsuit filed by independent MP Mustafa Sand.

A judicial source confirmed to Shafaq News that the ruling followed a complaint alleging "insult, defamation, and slander." Nanaa was immediately taken into custody to serve the sentence.

This is not Nanaa’s first legal challenge. A Baghdad court previously sentenced him to prison and imposed a fine in a separate case filed by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani.

This marks another instance in a series of recent prison sentences targeting journalists in Iraq. Earlier this week, Kurdish journalist Shirwan Shirwani received a four-and-a-half-year sentence from the Bnaslawa Misdemeanor Court in Erbil, citing "aggravating circumstances."

Shirwani, editor-in-chief of Ashur magazine and an active member of the human rights organization “17 Shubat,” has focused on reporting government corruption in the Kurdistan Region. He had previously been sentenced to four years in prison after the Erbil Adult Correctional Directorate accused him of fabricating documents.

Despite a slight improvement in Iraq’s International Press Freedom Ranking, many journalists claim facing ‘’assaults, censorship, and limited legal protections,’’ further operating in an environment marked by ‘’threats, legal restrictions, and violence.’’