Shafaq News/ A new imprisonment sentence, the third of its kind, has been issued against Zaid Al-Talaqani, the chairman of the Rafidain Center for Dialogue (RCD), a judicial source reported on Tuesday.
The source told Shafaq News, “The Najaf Criminal Court sentenced Al-Talaqani and another defendant to one year of simple imprisonment under the provisions of Article 243, in conjunction with Article 295/1 of the amended Iraqi Penal Code No. 111 of 1969."
The provisions of Article 243 of the Penal Code, amended by Law No. 15 of 2009, state, “Anyone who falsely informs a judicial or administrative authority of a crime they know has not occurred, or maliciously informs one of the mentioned authorities of a person's commission of a crime, knowing that their statement is false, or fabricates material evidence of someone's commission of a crime contrary to reality, or causes legal actions to be taken against a person they know is innocent, and anyone who informs the competent authorities of matters they know to be false regarding a crime that has occurred, shall be punished.”
Under the legal provision, “the informant will be punished with the maximum penalty for the crime they falsely accused someone of, if their falsehood is proven, provided that the punishment does not exceed ten years of imprisonment."
The Iraqi judiciary issued its first verdict against Al-Talaqani on September 1, sentencing him to one year of simple imprisonment.
“The Najaf Criminal Court issued the sentence after Al-Talaqani was found to have made derogatory remarks about Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in leaked recordings.”
The second verdict was issued on the fifth of the same month, where the Najaf Court sentenced Al-Talaqani to one year of imprisonment following a complaint filed against him by activist Hadeel Dahhi.
On August 19th, a special operations (SWAT) unit raided the RCD headquarters in Najaf to arrest Al-Talqani, confiscating weapons and removing security personnel. However, Al-Talqani was not present during the raid.
Three days earlier, the Najaf Investigation Court issued an arrest warrant for Al-Talaqani after Ghaith Abu Shubaa, the deputy head of the Najaf Provincial Council, alleged that Al-Talaqani threatened him following his expulsion from the party, which occurred after Abu Shubaa's victory in the recent provincial council elections.
The warrant charged al-Talaqani under Article 430 of the amended Iraqi Penal Code No. 111 of 1969.
Article 430 of the Iraqi Penal Code stipulates that “anyone who threatens another person with committing a felony against themselves, their property, or the property of others, or with defamation, with the intent to coerce them into doing or refraining from doing something, can be punished with up to seven years in prison or a lesser sentence.” The same penalties apply if the threat is anonymous or attributed to a supposed secret group.